Primetime Ratings: 19.5 million Watch Phillies vs. Yankees On Fox
Best opening game of World Series since 2004's matchup between the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals
By Stuart Levine, Daily Variety -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/29/2009 12:32:28 PM
Fox was as dominant as the Philadelphia Phillies Wednesday night. The net easily took home the ratings race with its coverage of game one of the World Series and was followed by a distant ABC, which continues to see excellent traction on new laffer Modern Family.According to early time zone-adjusted Nielsens, the game drew a 6.3 rating in the 18-49 demo, with 19.5 million viewers watching. A share had yet to be determined. Those numbers are the best opening game of the World Series since 2004's matchup between the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinal.
ABC's Modern Family (3.7/9, 9.2m) is a bonafide hit for the Alphabet, and has been an excellent lead-in for Cougar Town (3.2/8, 7.5m). The two haven't been able to help 10 p.m. drama Eastwick (1.8/5, 5m) all that much, but the witches tale was slightly better than last week, mostly like because CBS offered a repeat of CSI: NY (2.2/6, 9/2m).
Actually, the Eye offered nothing but reruns--New Adventures of Old Christine (1.6/5, 6.6m), Gary Unmarried (1.7/5, 6.4m) and Criminal Minds (2.4/6, 9.7m)--but it was still good enough to tie NBC for third.
In a battle of 8 p.m. half-hour specials, NBC's Monsters vs. Aliens (2.2/6, 6.9m) defeated ABC's Charlie Brown (2.0/6, 6.6m). Patricia Heaton starrer The Middle, however, won the 8:30 slot with a 2.2/6, 6.6m.
The baseball game was good for The CW. America's Next Top Model (1.6/4, 3.5m) had its best 18-34, 18-49 and total viewers for the season.
Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: Fox, 5.7/15; ABC, 2.5, 6; NBC, 2.1/5; CBS, 2.1/5; Univision, 1.4/4; CW, 1.2/3.
In total viewers: Fox, 17.7 million; CBS, 8.4 million; ABC, 6.6 million; NBC, 6.4 million; Univision, 3.6 million; CW, 2.1 million.
Stuart Levine writes for B&C's sister publication Daily Variety.
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