Fox sure knows what a man wants: baseball

Viewers flocked to Fox last week for its postseason baseball coverage, but CBS continued its streak as the most watched network, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

With baseball games on in prime time each day of the week, Fox finished first from Oct. 10 through Sunday among males in all the age categories for which figures are available.

The week’s most watched game was Game 5 of the American League division series between the Angels and New York Yankees on Oct. 10. The game was 18th for the week, with 13.7 million viewers.

For the fourth consecutive week, CBS was the most watched network.

It also led among viewers ages 18 to 49 for the first time this season, after ABC’s three consecutive victories in that category.

With three of the five most watched programs, including “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” the week’s most watched program with 28.3 million viewers, CBS averaged 13.4 million viewers for the week.

ABC was second with 10.7 million, followed by Fox with 10.5 million, NBC with 9.6 million, the WB with 3.8 million and UPN with 3.7 million.

For the third consecutive week, “Commander in Chief” was the only new series to crack the prime-time top 10, finishing ninth. However, its viewership dropped 4% from the previous week to 16.2 million from 16.9 million.

“Commander in Chief” continued to fare worse among viewers ages 18 to 49 than the general audience, tying for 18th in the group with NBC’s “Medium” and ABC’s “Monday Night Football” pregame show.

CBS’ “Criminal Minds” was the only other new series in the overall top 20, finishing 17th with 13.8 million viewers.

ABC’s “Freddie” premiered in 45th place with 9.4 million viewers, surpassing its lead-in “George Lopez,” which attracted 8.8 million for an episode that included a cameo appearance by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

CBS’ “Close to Home” and ABC’s “Hot Properties” continued the season’s trend of new series falling in viewership from their premieres to second episodes.

“Close to Home” fell 3% to 10.1 million, finishing 39th for the week. It drew 10.4 million viewers its first week. .

“Hot Properties” fell 11% to 5.4 million, putting it in 80th place. Its premiere attracted 6.1 million viewers.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Oct. 10 to 16) as compiled by Nielsen Media Research. They are based on the average number of people who watched a program from start to finish. Nielsen estimates there are 277.93 million potential viewers in the U.S. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* Program Network Viewers 1 CSI CBS 28.34 2 Desperate Housewives ABC 25.78 3 Lost (Wed.) ABC 21.66 4 Without a Trace CBS 20.55 5 CSI: Miami CBS 18.49

6 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 18.28 7 Survivor: Guatemala CBS 17.85 8 NCIS CBS 16.78 9 Commander in Chief (Tue.) ABC 16.22 10 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 16.15

11 Monday Night Football ABC 15.72 12 60 Minutes CBS 15.50 13 Two and a Half Men CBS 15.24 14 CSI: NY CBS 15.22 15 Law & Order: SVU NBC 14.88

16 Cold Case CBS 14.15 17 Criminal Minds CBS 13.76 18 AL Playoff Game 5 (Mon.) FOX 13.70 19 ER NBC 13.61 20 Las Vegas NBC 13.59

21 MLB League Championship Series, Games 1 and 2 FOX 13.51 (Wed.) 22 Medium NBC 12.68 23 My Name Is Earl NBC 12.62 24 Out of Practice CBS 12.26 25 NFL Monday Showcase ABC 12.12

26 Invasion ABC 11.58 27 ALCS, Game 1 (Tue.) FOX 11.48 28 ALCS, Game 5 (Sun.) FOX 11.28 29 Crossing Jordan NBC 11.22 30 Numb3rs CBS 11.09

31 Amazing Race 8 CBS 10.95 32 Law & Order NBC 10.92 33 Boston Legal ABC 10.90 34 King of Queens CBS 10.50 35 Surface NBC 10.42

36 Apprentice 4 NBC 10.24 37 “Walker, Texas Ranger” CBS 10.20 38 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sun.) NBC 10.18 39 Close to Home CBS 10.11 40 Ghost Whisperer CBS 9.99

41 NLCS, Game 2 (Thu.) FOX 9.91 42 How I Met Your Mother CBS 9.84 43 ALCS, Game 3 (Fri.) FOX 9.64 44 Crimetime Saturday CBS 9.58 45 Freddie ABC 9.38

46 ALCS, Game 5 Pregame FOX 9.13 47 48 Hours Mystery CBS 8.77 48 Yes, Dear CBS 8.76 49 George Lopez ABC 8.75 50 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 8.67

51 E-Ring NBC 8.56 52 Biggest Loser 2 NBC 8.44 53 Will & Grace NBC 8.34 54 The West Wing NBC 8.07 Wife Swap ABC 8.07

Threshold CBS 8.07 57 Rodney ABC 7.98 58 “Lowe’s 500” NBC 7.94 59 Three Wishes NBC 7.85 60 According to Jim ABC 7.84

61 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.80 62 20/20 ABC 7.64 63 MLB League Championship Series Pregame (Wed.) FOX 7.63 64 Office NBC 7.62 65 ALCS, Game 4 (Sat.) FOX 7.59

66 Still Standing CBS 7.48 67 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Fri.) NBC 7.47 68 Joey NBC 7.35 69 Crimetime Saturday CBS 7.30 70 Alias ABC 7.20

71 Supernanny ABC 6.96 72 Apprentice: Martha NBC 6.94 73 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 6.93 74 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 6.33 75 Hope and Faith ABC 6.23

76 Gilmore Girls WB 6.16 77 Smallville WB 5.92 78 Supernatural WB 5.50 79 America’s Next Top Model 5 (Wed.) UPN 5.47 80 Hot Properties ABC 5.41

81 7th Heaven WB 5.26 82 NLCS Game 2 Pregame (Thu.) FOX 5.21 83 Night Stalker ABC 5.15 84 ALCS Game 3 Pregame” (Fri.) FOX 5.11 85 Commander in Chief (Sat.) ABC 4.83

86 Primetime ABC 4.48 87 Charmed WB 4.21 88 Everwood WB 4.14 89 All of Us UPN 4.04 90 Girlfriends UPN 4.00

91 WWE Smackdown! UPN 3.95 92 Love Inc. UPN 3.92 93 Lost (Sat.) ABC 3.81 94 Reba (Fri.) WB 3.71 95 One on One UPN 3.62

96 Half and Half UPN 3.53 97 Eve UPN 3.47 98 Invasion (Sat.) ABC 3.46 99 One Tree Hill WB 3.12 100 Veronica Mars UPN 3.03

101 Cuts UPN 2.87 102 America’s Next Top Model 5 (Tue.) UPN 2.85 103 Living With Fran WB 2.65 104 Reba (Sun., 7:30 p.m.) WB 2.62 105 Related (Wed.) WB 2.55

Blue Collar TV (9:30 p.m.) WB 2.55 107 Related (Mon.) WB 2.40 108 Blue Collar TV (9 p.m.) WB 2.28 109 Twins WB 2.21 110 Reba (7 p.m.) WB 2.21

111 What I Like About You WB 1.98 112 Sex, Love & Secrets UPN 1.57

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Network averages

Here is the number of viewers (in millions) that each network averaged per hour of prime time, for last week and for the season.

*--* Network Last week Season to date CBS 13.43 12.92

ABC 10.67 11.21

FOX 10.53 8.45

NBC 9.56 9.55

WB 3.80 3.60

UPN 3.67 3.66

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