Bats and balls are still good for a hit or two
10/30/07 12:40 PM
By ED BARK
The World Series, even another truncated one, can still put a network on the scoreboard.
Fox's telecasts of the four-game Boston sweep over Colorado gave it weekly ratings wins (Oct. 22-28) in all the major Nielsen Media Research food groups. Yes, it was the third lowest-rated Series ever, averaging 17,212,000 viewers a game according to Nielsen Media Research. But it topped the numbers of the previous two Series and gave Fox five of the week's 15 most-watched programs (including No. 5 House).
Three of the four Series games also cracked the weekly top 10 among advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds, a list that was topped by Fox's House. Add big 18-to-49-year-old numbers for the previous week's 7th game between Boston and Cleveland. All in all, baseball enabled Fox to leap-frog past NBC and CBS into a competitive second place for the season, behind only ABC. And with American Idol and the Super Bowl coming, Fox looks like a cinch to again win the season among the only audience group that networks really care about.
The least-watched World Series in 35 years of modern-day Nielsen record-keeping is last fall's matchup between the St. Louis Cardinals and Detroit Tigers, which averaged 15,812,000 total viewers. The 2005 Chicago White Sox-Houston Astros Series is runnerup with 17,162,000 total viewers.
Baseball's all-time champ, the Yankees-Dodgers Series in 1978 on NBC, drew an average of 44,278,950 viewers per game, says Nielsen. Viewership hasn't topped 30 million since 1992, when the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Atlanta Braves on CBS.
Absent baseball, ABC is faring the best with new series through the first five weeks of the 2007-08 season.
The network has five freshman in the top 40 among total viewers. They are Samantha Who? (No. 13); Private Practice (No. 18); Pushing Daisies (No. 26); Women's Murder Club (No. 35) and Dirty Sexy Money (No. 37).
NBC has one entrant, No. 30 Bionic Woman, as does CBS (No. 37 Cane). Fox's most-watched newcomer, Back to You, ranks just 61st in total viewers.
The season-to-date ratings among 18-to-49-year-olds also include seven freshman series in Nielsen's top 40. They are: ABC's Private Practice (No. 9); ABC's Samantha Who? (No. 17); NBC's Bionic Woman (No. 18); ABC's Pushing Daisies (No. 26); ABC's Big Shots (No. 30); CBS' The Big Bang Theory (No. 35) and ABC's Dirty Sexy Money (No. 36).
Several series, both new and returning, are notable for their big swings in appeal among total viewers and 18-to-49-year-olds.
Fox's Family Guy ranks 38th overall, but 9th with 18-to-49-year-olds.
NBC's The Office respectively rates 37th and 8th.
ABC's Women's Murder Club heads in the opposite direction, placing 35th in the total viewer Nielsens but a geriatric 75th among 18-to-49-year-olds.
CBS' recently canceled Viva Laughlin pretty much had the worst of both worlds in its two-episode run. It finished 79th in the total viewer Nielsens and plunged to 112th in the 18-to-49 demo.
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