Fox overcomes Series ratings

Television viewership for the opening two games of the World Series sank to record lows, but Fox Broadcasting was still able to claim ratings victories, according to Nielsen Media Research figures released Tuesday.

The Chicago White Sox’s 5-3 victory over the Houston Astros in Game 1 on Saturday drew 15 million viewers, the least-watched World Series game since Oct. 14, 1971, when 13.6 million people tuned in to the Thursday afternoon telecast of Game 5 between the Baltimore Orioles and Pittsburgh Pirates.

Sunday’s Game 2 fared better, drawing 17.2 million viewers, but the two-game average of 16.1 million viewers is the lowest since individual game viewership began being recorded in 1969.

Nevertheless, Fox was the most-watched network Saturday and also finished first among all key adult demographic groups. On Sunday, Fox finished first in the household ratings and also led in the adult male demographic groups.

CBS and its Thursday hit “CSI” continued their streaks as the most-watched network and program, respectively.

CBS averaged 13.1 million viewers between Oct. 17 and Sunday, becoming the first network to win each of the first five weeks of a season since NBC recorded the feat in 1997.

For the fourth consecutive week, ABC’s “Commander in Chief” was the only new series to crack the prime-time top 10.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Oct. 17-23) 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. age 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* Program Network Viewers 1 CSI CBS 28.48 2 Desperate Housewives (Sun.) ABC 25.22 3 Lost ABC 21.38 4 Without a Trace CBS 19.82 5 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 18.00

6 CSI: Miami CBS 17.91 7 Survivor: Guatemala CBS 17.78 8 NCIS CBS 17.69 9 “World Series Game 2” FOX 17.19 10 Commander in Chief ABC 16.30

11 60 Minutes CBS 16.02 12 Two and a Half Men CBS 15.56 13 “World Series Game 1” FOX 15.01 14 Cold Case CBS 14.95 15 ER NBC 14.70

16 Monday Night Football ABC 14.44 17 Law & Order: SVU NBC 14.36 18 “NLCS: Game 6” (Wed.) FOX 14.12 19 CSI: NY CBS 14.00 20 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 12.98

21 Criminal Minds CBS 12.79 22 Las Vegas NBC 12.64 23 Law & Order NBC 12.33 24 Out of Practice CBS 12.25 25 My Name Is Earl NBC 12.19

26 Crossing Jordan NBC 12.08 27 Medium NBC 11.94 28 “NLCS Game 5” (Mon.) FOX 11.61 29 Boston Legal ABC 11.59 30 Invasion ABC 11.24

31 Numb3rs CBS 11.17 32 NFL Monday Showcase ABC 11.13 33 Amazing Race 8 CBS 11.11 34 Apprentice 4 NBC 10.63 35 Ghost Whisperer CBS 10.55

36 King of Queens CBS 10.47 37 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sun.) NBC 10.45 38 How I Met Your Mother CBS 10.13 39 Close to Home CBS 9.91 40 “World Series Pre-Game 2” FOX 9.57

41 Surface NBC 9.56 42 E-Ring NBC 9.55 43 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 9.02 44 Three Wishes NBC 8.84 45 Biggest Loser 2 NBC 8.60

46 48 Hours Mystery CBS 8.37 47 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 8.26 48 House FOX 8.25 49 “Enough” CBS 8.20 50 Freddie ABC 8.08

51 Office NBC 8.02 52 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 8.01 53 George Lopez ABC 7.94 54 Will & Grace NBC 7.88 55 Wife Swap ABC 7.86

56 The West Wing NBC 7.85 57 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Fri.) NBC 7.84 58 20/20 ABC 7.77 59 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 7.68 60 Rodney ABC 7.62

61 Joey NBC 7.60 62 According to Jim ABC 7.59 63 Yes, Dear CBS 7.56 64 Threshold CBS 7.45 65 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 7.37

66 “NLCS Pre-Game 6 (Wed.) FOX 7.34 67 Still Standing CBS 6.98 68 Alias ABC 6.78 69 “NLCS Pre-Game 5 (Mon.) FOX 6.77 70 Apprentice: Martha NBC 6.62

71 Primetime ABC 6.58 72 Smallville WB 6.40 73 Hope & Faith ABC 6.23 74 Gilmore Girls WB 6.08 75 Supernanny ABC 5.74

76 Hot Properties ABC 5.63 77 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 5.52 78 America’s Next Top Model 5 (Wed.) UPN 5.45 79 7th Heaven WB 5.32 80 Supernatural (Tue.) WB 5.00

81 “Air Force One” ABC 4.97 82 Night Stalker ABC 4.51 83 Bones FOX 4.46 84 “Chicago” NBC 4.32 85 Killer Instinct FOX 4.30

86 Charmed WB 4.26 87 Girlfriends UPN 4.24 88 Desperate Housewives (Sat.) ABC 4.15 89 Everwood WB 4.07 90 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.03

91 Bernie Mac FOX 4.00 92 All of Us UPN 3.97 93 Half and Half UPN 3.82 94 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 3.63 95 One on One UPN 3.50

96 Reba (Fri.) WB 3.34 97 Love Inc. UPN 3.14 98 One Tree Hill WB 3.12 99 Veronica Mars UPN 3.05 100 Reunion (8 p.m.) FOX 2.78

101 Eve UPN 2.66 102 Reba (Sun., 7:30 p.m.) WB 2.65 103 America’s Next Top Model 5 (Tue.) UPN 2.64 104 Twins WB 2.49 105 Cuts UPN 2.45

106 Reunion (9 p.m.) FOX 2.39 107 Related (Wed.) WB 2.28 108 Related (Mon.) WB 2.25 109 Supernatural (Sun.) WB 2.23 110 What I Like About You (8 p.m.) WB 2.15

111 Reba (Sun., 7 p.m.) WB 2.08 112 What I Like About You (8:30 p.m.) WB 2.00 113 Sex, Love & Secrets UPN 1.12

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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 13.09 12.95

FOX 10.63 8.90

ABC 10.46 11.06

NBC 9.32 9.51

WB 3.72 3.63

UPN 3.50 3.63

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