Series is no winner for Fox

Fox Broadcasting’s coverage of the conclusion of the Philadelphia Phillies’ World Series-winning, rain-interrupted 4-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays was prime-time television’s most-watched program last week, but it was not enough for the series to avoid the third record low in the last four years.

The 88-minute telecast of Game 5 last Wednesday averaged 19.84 million viewers. Coverage of the first 5 1/2 innings of the game, which were played Oct. 27, averaged 13.24 million viewers, finishing 14th among all prime-time programs shown from Oct. 27 through Sunday, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

The series’ average viewership of 13.6 million was 14% below the previous low of 15.81 million for the St. Louis Cardinals’ five-game victory over the Detroit Tigers in the 2006 World Series.

CBS was the most-watched network for the fifth consecutive week, averaging 11.38 million viewers for its prime-time programming. It had the week’s most-watched scripted program, “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” second overall with 19.1 million viewers.

NBC’s struggle to find viewers continued as none of its entertainment programs was among the week’s top 34.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Oct. 27 -- Nov. 2) 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 Baseball: World Series Game 5 Conclusion (Wed.) FOX 19.84 2 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation CBS 19.10 3 Dancing With the Stars ABC 18.88 4 Dancing With the Stars Results ABC 17.44 5 NCIS CBS 17.26 *--*

*--* 6 Football: New England at Indianapolis NBC 16.74 7 The Mentalist CBS 16.07 8 Desperate Housewives ABC 15.93 9 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 15.32 10 60 Minutes CBS 14.32 *--*

*--* 11 Criminal Minds CBS 13.97 12 CSI: NY CBS 13.75 13 House FOX 13.50 14 Baseball: World Series Game 5 (Mon.) FOX 13.24 15 Survivor: Gabon CBS 13.01 *--*

*--* 16 The Simpsons FOX 12.40 17 College football ABC 12.20 18 Without a Trace CBS 12.19 19 World Series pre-game (Wed.) FOX 12.08 20 Football pre-game (Sun.) NBC 12.02 *--*

*--* 21 Two and a Half Men CBS 11.88 22 Cold Case CBS 11.66 23 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 11.65 24 The OT FOX 11.49 25 Eleventh Hour CBS 11.25 *--*

*--* 26 NCIS (Fri.) CBS 11.24 27 Numb3rs CBS 10.72 28 CSI: Miami CBS 10.59 29 World Series Game 5 post-game (Wed.) FOX 10.54 30 Samantha Who? ABC 10.47 *--*

*--* 31 It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! ABC 10.38 32 Family Guy FOX 9.99 33 The Amazing Race 13 CBS 9.72 34 Brothers & Sisters ABC 9.62 35 The Office NBC 9.51 *--*

*--* 36 Ghost Whisperer CBS 9.40 37 Law & Order: SVU NBC 9.33 38 ER NBC 9.19 39 The Unit CBS 8.98 40 30 Rock NBC 8.66 *--*

*--* 41 Gary Unmarried CBS 8.65 42 Boston Legal ABC 8.58 43 Ugly Betty ABC 8.55 44 Football Night in America (Part 3) NBC 8.54 45 King of the Hill FOX 8.50 *--*

*--* 46 Deal or No Deal (Wed.) NBC 8.34 47 Heroes NBC 8.19 48 Biggest Loser 6 NBC 8.14 Life on Mars ABC 8.14 50 Private Practice ABC 7.93 *--*

*--* The Big Bang Theory CBS 7.93 52 The New Adventures of Old Christine CBS 7.61 53 48 Hours Mystery CBS 7.57 54 How I Met Your Mother CBS 7.26 55 Crimetime Saturday CBS 7.24 *--*

*--* 56 American Dad FOX 7.09 57 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 6.95 58 Eli Stone ABC 6.92 59 Chuck NBC 6.70 60 Pushing Daisies ABC 6.69 *--*

*--* 61 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 6.42 62 My Name Is Earl NBC 6.27 63 World Series Game 5 pre-game (Mon.) FOX 6.23 64 Dirty Sexy Money ABC 6.06 65 College football pre-game ABC 5.89 *--*

*--* 66 Fringe FOX 5.66 Fuego en La Sangre (Mon.) UNI 5.66 68 Fuego en La Sangre (Tue.) UNI 5.58 69 Fuego en La Sangre (Wed.) UNI 5.57 70 America’s Most Wanted: America Fights Back FOX 5.55 *--*

*--* 71 Kath & Kim NBC 5.44 72 Cops (8:30) FOX 5.29 73 My Own Worst Enemy NBC 5.28 74 Fuego en La Sangre (Thu.) UNI 5.26 75 Cuidado con El Angel (Tue.) UNI 5.23 *--*

*--* 76 Cuidado con El Angel (Mon.) UNI 5.15 *--*

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 11.38 11.26

ABC 10.14 10.06

NBC 7.53 7.32

FOX 9.53 8.29

UNI 4.11 3.91 *--*