CBS Wins Ratings Despite World Series

NEW YORK (AP) — The final two games of a World Series between two iconic franchises wasn’t enough for Fox to beat dominant CBS in the television ratings last week.

The sixth game, where the Boston Red Sox beat the St. Louis Cardinals to win the series, reached 19.2 million viewers, the Nielsen company said. That’s nearly five million more than the audience for the fifth game. But the Red Sox win rendered unnecessary a climactic seventh game, which undoubtedly would have been a big draw.

The final game was just eclipsed in the ratings by television’s most popular show, “NCIS” on CBS.

Strong performances by “60 Minutes,””NCIS: Los Angeles” and “Person of Interest” also propelled CBS, which won handily despite airing a rerun of its most popular comedy, “The Big Bang Theory.”

CBS averaged 10.5 million for the week inprime time. Fox had 7.7 million, ABC and NBC tied at 7.43 million, Univision had 3.2 million, the CW had 1.6 million, Ion Television had 1.21 million and Telemundo had 1.2 million.

ESPN was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 2.3 million viewers in prime time. The Disney Channel had 1.96 million, USA had 1.95 million, Fox News Channel had 1.94 million and TBS had 1.8 million.

NBC’s “Nightly News” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.7 million viewers. ABC’s “World News” was second with 7.8 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.8 million viewers.

The Top 20

Primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Oct. 28-Nov. 3. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.

1. “NCIS,” CBS, 19.3 million.

2. World Series Game 6: St. Louis at Boston, Fox, 19.18 million.

3. NFL Football: Indianapolis at Houston, NBC, 17.04 million.

4. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 15.81 million.

5. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 14.9 million.

6. World Series Game 5: Boston at St. Louis, Fox, 14.45 million.

7. “Walking Dead,” AMC, 13.31 million.

8. “Dancing With the Stars,” ABC, 13.28 million.

9. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 13.22 million.

10. “Person of Interest,” CBS, 12 million.

11. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 11.8 million.

12. “Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick,” NBC, 11.7 million.

13. “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 11.62 million.

14. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 11.01 million.

15. NFL Football Seattle vs. St. Louis, ESPN, 10.76 million.

16. “Castle,” ABC, 10.69 million.

17. “Criminal Minds,” CBS, 10.64 million.

18. “The Blacklist,” NBC, 10.51 million.

19. “The Good Wife,” CBS, 10.22 million.

20. “Hawaii Five-0,” CBS, 9.71 million.