Fox emerges as a winner from the baseball playoffs

Baseball’s American League Championship Series gave Fox its first fourth-quarter victory in the weekly prime-time ratings since 2004, excluding holiday weeks, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

The series’ five telecasts last week averaged 13.14 million viewers, helping Fox average 11.81 million viewers for its prime-time programming between Oct. 15 and Sunday. Sports, including 57 minutes of Sunday’s NFL coverage, made up all but four hours of Fox’s nearly 20 hours of prime-time programming for the week.

Fox’s last weekly victory between October and December was the week of Oct. 18-24, 2004, when the Boston Red Sox capped an unprecedented comeback to defeat the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series.

The baseball success was not able to carry over to Friday’s two-hour premiere of “The Next Great American Band.” The talent competition from the producers of Fox’s “American Idol” attracted 3.61 million viewers, putting it fifth in its 8-10 p.m. slot among the five major English-language networks and 91st for the week.

CBS also had a ratings premiere debacle with “Viva Laughlin.” Thursday’s premiere of the mystery drama with musical numbers drew 8.39 million viewers, retaining just 40% of the 21.22 million viewers for “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” which preceded it.

A second episode on Sunday fared even worse, with 6.43 million -- and CBS canceled the show Monday.

ABC’s “Samantha Who?” was the season’s most-watched premiere with 14.42 million viewers. The comedy, starring Christina Applegate as a woman who comes out of a coma with no memory of her past life, retained 74% of the 19.4 million viewers watching the “Dancing With the Stars” episode preceding it Oct. 15 to finish 10th for the week.

For the third time in four weeks, “NBC Nightly News” was first among the network nightly newscasts with 8.2 million viewers, its most since the week of April 16. ABC’s “World News With Charles Gibson” was second with 8.1 million, and “The CBS Evening News With Katie Couric” was third for the 56th consecutive week, with 6.41 million.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Oct. 15-21) 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 286 million potential viewers in the U.S. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* -- Program Network Viewers 1 CSI CBS 21.22 2 Dancing With the Stars (Mon.) ABC 19.40 3 “Baseball: ALCS, Game 7” (Sun.) FOX 19.15 4 Desperate Housewives ABC 18.21 5 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 18.03

6 NCIS CBS 17.55 7 Dancing With the Stars (Tue.) ABC 17.30 8 CSI: Miami CBS 15.59 9 Criminal Minds CBS 15.03 10 Samantha Who? ABC 14.42

11 Survivor: China CBS 14.03 12 CSI: NY CBS 13.99 13 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 13.72 14 Two and a Half Men CBS 13.69 15 “Baseball: ALCS, Game 7 Pre-Game” (Sun.) FOX 13.32

16 Sunday Night Football NBC 13.29 17 “Baseball: ALCS, Game 5” (Thu.) FOX 13.10 18 The OT (football post-game) FOX 12.64 19 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 12.51 20 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 12.41

21 “Baseball: ALCS, Game 4” (Tue.) FOX 12.37 22 The Unit CBS 12.35 23 Private Practice ABC 11.78 24 Cold Case CBS 11.69 25 Brothers & Sisters ABC 11.54

26 Heroes NBC 11.40 27 60 Minutes CBS 11.16 28 “Baseball: ALCS, Game 6” (Sat.) FOX 11.15 29 Shark CBS 11.00 30 Rules of Engagement CBS 10.81

31 “Pro Football Pre-Game” (Sun.) NBC 10.43 32 E.R. NBC 10.12 33 “Baseball: ALCS, Game 3” (Mon..) FOX 9.91 34 Pushing Daisies ABC 9.86 35 Numb3rs CBS 9.85

36 Ugly Betty ABC 9.83 37 Boston Legal ABC 9.78 38 Women’s Murder Club ABC 9.71 39 Deal or No Deal (Fri.) NBC 9.19 40 Ghost Whisperer CBS 8.95

41 The Bachelor ABC 8.93 42 Dirty Sexy Money ABC 8.67 43 Football Night in America, Part 3 NBC 8.62 44 Bionic Woman (Wed.) NBC 8.61 -- The Office NBC 8.61

46 Cane CBS 8.54 47 Viva Laughlin (Thu.) CBS 8.39 48 Chuck (Mon.) NBC 8.36 49 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.27 50 The Big Bang Theory CBS 7.94

51 How I Met Your Mother CBS 7.71 52 Moonlight CBS 7.67 53 Las Vegas NBC 7.66 54 Big Shots ABC 7.64 -- Life NBC 7.64

56 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.53 57 Kid Nation CBS 7.35 58 Crimetime Saturday CBS 7.25 -- My Name Is Earl NBC 7.25 60 “Baseball: ALCS, Game 4 Pre-Game” (Tue.) FOX 7.17

61 Back to You FOX 7.06 62 Til Death FOX 7.01 63 Carpoolers ABC 6.99 64 Biggest Loser 4 NBC 6.95 65 Cavemen ABC 6.91

66 Kitchen Nightmares FOX 6.87 67 20/20 ABC 6.80 68 Journeyman NBC 6.75 69 “Baseball: ALCS, Game 6 Pre-Game” (Sat.) FOX 6.60 70 “Baseball: ALCS, Game 5 Pre-Game” (Thu.) FOX 6.55

71 Viva Laughlin (Sun.) CBS 6.43 72 Men in Trees ABC 6.28 73 30 Rock NBC 6.22 74 Destilando Amor (Thu.) UNI 5.80 75 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 5.79

76 “Dateline Presents” NBC 5.73 77 Destilando Amor (Mon.) UNI 5.38 78 Destilando Amor (Tue.) UNI 5.37 -- Friday Night Lights NBC 5.37 80 Destilando Amor (Wed.) UNI 5.22

81 Smallville CW 5.18 82 America’s Top Model 3 (Wed.) CW 4.94 83 Destilando Amor (Fri.) UNI 4.88 84 Friday Night Smackdown CW 4.73 85 Football Night in America, Part 2 NBC 4.63

86 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 4.56 87 Saturday Night Football ABC 4.47 88 Familia P. Luche UNI 4.01 89 Saturday Night Football Pre-Game ABC 3.98 90 Cristina UNI 3.63

91 Next Great American Band FOX 3.61 92 Beauty and the Geek CW 3.60 93 Aqui u Ahora UNI 3.59 94 Bionic Woman (Sat.) NBC 3.39 95 Retro P. Luche UNI 3.34

96 Reaper CW 3.27 97 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.20 98 Chuck (Sat.) NBC 3.14 99 Supernatural CW 3.03 100 Buscando Timbiriche UNI 2.98

101 Amar Sin Limites (Mon.) UNI 2.90 102 Amar Sin Limites (Thu.) UNI 2.85 -- SOS: Sexo y Otros Secretos UNI 2.85 104 Amar Sin Limites (Tue.) UNI 2.84 105 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Mon.) UNI 2.83

106 Amar Sin Limites (Wed.) UNI 2.76 107 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Wed.) UNI 2.75 108 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Tue.) UNI 2.74 -- Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Thu.) UNI 2.74 110 The Game CW 2.68

111 Everybody Hates Chris CW 2.61 112 Girlfriends CW 2.43 113 Yo Amo Juan Querendon (Fri.) UNI 2.41 -- Gossip Girl CW 2.41 115 Amar Sin Limites (Fri.) UNI 2.34

116 Aliens in America CW 2.25 117 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.23 118 Hora Pico UNI 1.86 119 America’s Top Model 3 (Sun.) CW 1.58 120 Life Is Wild CW 1.57

121 Aliens in America CW 1.29 122 Parodia UNI 1.10 123 CW Now CW 0.88 *--*

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 FOX 11.81 8.61

CBS 10.98 11.66

ABC 10.65 11.10

NBC 8.33 8.87

UNI 3.40 3.30

CW 3.16 2.97 *--*