NEW YORK – Baseball’s postseason renaissance led Fox to its third straight weekly win in the prime-time ratings, a first-ever accomplishment.
All four of the World Series games finished in Nielsen Media Research’s top 10, led by the climactic sixth game. An estimated 23.2 million people watched the Florida Marlins beat the New York Yankees Saturday night for the championship.
Even against World Series competition, CBS’ “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” was the week’s most popular program, seen by 27.6 million people.
Fox’s celebration was muted, however, by the disastrously poor showing of the “Joe Millionaire” season premiere and first-ever showing of “Skin.” Both shows were seen by fewer than 7 million people, despite heavy promotion.
Other shows on the danger list, based on low ratings, are NBC’s “Miss Match,” ABC’s “L.A. Dragnet” and “Karen Sisco,” and Fox’s “Boston Public,” flailing in its move to Friday night.
For the week, Fox averaged 14.3 million viewers (9.2 rating, 15 share), CBS had 12.6 million (8.3, 13), NBC 10.8 million (7.4, 12), ABC 9.3 million (6.2, 10), the WB 4.2 million (2.8, 4), UPN 3.5 million (2.5, 4) and Pax TV 920,000 (0.6, 1).
A ratings point represents 1,084,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation’s estimated 108.4 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.
For the week of Oct. 20-26, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” CBS, 27.6 million; World Series Game 6: Florida at N.Y. Yankees, Fox, 23.2 million; World Series Game 4: N.Y. Yankees at Florida, Fox, 20.9 million; “Survivor: Pearl Islands,” CBS, 20.2 million; World Series Game 5: N.Y. Yankees at Florida, 19.9 million; World Series Game 3: N.Y. Yankees at Florida, Fox, 18.9 million; “Friends,” NBC, 18.8 million; “Everybody Loves Raymond,” CBS, 18 million; “ER,” NBC, 18 million; “CSI: Miami,” CBS, 17.5 million.
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