Baseball bests rival shows

Faced with the extraordinarily popular baseball playoffs on Fox, rival networks have cried uncle and pulled several original series episodes for reruns.

CBS and NBC shelved new editions of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “Friends” -- television’s most popular drama and comedy -- on Thursday because the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox were playing the deciding game of the American League championship.

A night earlier, NBC yanked “The West Wing” off its schedule, replacing it with a “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” rerun and no explanation to viewers.

Fox’s broadcast of the deciding game of the National League championship between the Florida Marlins and Chicago Cubs on Wednesday was seen by an estimated 26.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. It was the highest-rated league championship game in at least 10 years.