Fox Loads the Bases, Hits Grand Slam

Fox’s murderers’ row of five World Series games, “The X-Files,” the “Millennium” premiere and “The Simpsons” Halloween marathon produced the highest weeklong rating in the network’s history. Those results came despite the third-lowest-rated baseball Fall Classic ever, ranking ahead of only the 1993 and 1989 series.

Buoyed by Fox’s promotional blitz, “Millennium” scored the highest premiere rating ever for a Fox drama and “X-Files” ranked first in its new time slot opposite the network Sunday movies.

With the World Series more than doubling Fox’s previous rating average, highlights for the other networks were few and far between in the figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. Most shows fell to season-low ratings against baseball, as ABC, CBS and NBC combined for just 44% of the prime-time audience, compared to 53% through the season’s first five weeks.

CBS’ “Touched by an Angel” did fly off with its highest rating yet Sunday, while the return to daylight saving time brought “60 Minutes” its biggest numbers since March. On the down side, the premiere of CBS’ “EZ Streets” ranked fourth in its time period.

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Southland Ratings

Here are A.C. Nielsen’s Top 10 prime-time programs in the Los Angeles area during the same week. Each rating point equals 50,064 households.

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Program Station Rating 1. Millennium KTTV 19.4 2. ER KNBC 18.2 3. Friends KNBC 17.9 4. The X-Files KTTV 17.7 5. 60 Minutes KCBS 17.1 6. NYPD Blue KABC 17.0 - The Simpsons KTTV 17.0 8. Mad About You KNBC 16.6 9. Home Improvement KABC 15.9 - Frasier KNBC 15.9

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Weekly Averages

FOX: 15.8

NBC: 9.6

CBS: 8.8

ABC: 8.6

UPN: 2.9

WB: 2.9

Season to Date

NBC: 10.9

CBS: 10.1

ABC: 9.7

FOX: 8.8

UPN: 3.3

WB: 2.8

Source: A. C. Nielsen