Red Sox boost Fox with key viewers

A competitive, down-to-the-wire race may be in the offing for TV networks too.

The improbable postseason run of the Boston Red Sox vaulted Fox into the lead among 18-to-49-year-old TV viewers this season -- the demographic group that networks chase because it’s most valuable to their advertisers.

This year, Fox is averaging 5.4 million of these youthful viewers in prime time. Three rivals are right on Fox’s heels: CBS at 5.3 million, ABC at 5 million and NBC at 4.9 million, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Fox faces a tough couple of months without baseball but can count on the return of “American Idol” in January.

Among all viewers, CBS is dominant this season. With 29.6 million people tuning in to “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” last week, CBS was the most popular network overall.

Fox must be disappointed the World Series ended so quickly. The final two games were seen by 24.4 million and 28.8 million viewers, respectively.

ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” continues to gather momentum, scoring a series-best 22.1 million viewers, Nielsen said.

For the week, CBS averaged 13.5 million viewers (8.8 rating, 14 share). Fox had 11.3 million (7.3, 12), ABC 10.1 million (6.4, 10), NBC 9.3 million (6.2, 10), the WB 3.9 million (2.6, 4), UPN 3.8 million (2.5, 4) and Pax TV 650,000 (0.4, 1).

NBC’s “Nightly News” won the evening news ratings race, averaging 9.8 million viewers (6.8, 14). ABC’s “World News Tonight” had 9 million viewers (6.2, 12) and the “CBS Evening News” 6.8 million (4.9, 10).

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Oct. 25-31) 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 277.93 million potential viewers in the U.S., ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* 1 CSI CBS 29.60 2 “World Series, Game 4” (Wed.) FOX 28.84 3 “World Series, Game 3” (Tue.) FOX 24.42 4 Desperate Housewives ABC 22.14 5 Without a Trace CBS 22.06

6 CSI: Miami CBS 21.91 7 60 Minutes CBS 19.70 8 Survivor: Vanuatu CBS 19.10 9 Two and Half Men CBS 17.25 10 Monday Night Football ABC 17.00

11 Lost ABC 16.83 12 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 16.43 13 Cold Case CBS 16.20 14 Apprentice 2 NBC 15.75 15 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 14.51

16 “World Series, Pre-Game 3” (Tue.) FOX 14.19 17 NCIS CBS 13.68 18 “World Series, Pre-Game 4” (Wed.) FOX 13.57 19 Law and Order NBC 13.23 20 NFL Monday Showcase ABC 13.07

21 Law and Order: SVU ABC 13.01 22 CSI: NY CBS 12.98 23 ER NBC 12.72 24 Crossing Jordan NBC 12.69 25 NCIS (9 p.m.) CBS 12.28

26 The West Wing NBC 11.86 27 According to Jim ABC 11.81 28 Boston Legal ABC 11.59 29 Law and Order: Criminal Intent NBC 11.51 30 Fear Factor NBC 11.11

31 Still Standing CBS 11.00 32 “Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” ABC 10.77 33 Judging Amy CBS 10.75 34 King of Queens CBS 10.68 35 Center of the Universe CBS 10.38

36 Will & Grace NBC 10.30 37 Listen Up CBS 10.26 38 Joey NBC 10.13 39 Rodney ABC 10.05 40 NYPD Blue ABC 9.80

41 Third Watch NBC 9.68 42 Wife Swap ABC 9.44 43 JAG CBS 9.37 44 Medical Investigation NBGC 9.18 45 Biggest Loser NBC 9.03

46 “The Madam’s Family” CBS 8.98 47 Crimetime Saturday CBS 8.85 48 George Lopez ABC 8.70 49 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 8.63 50 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 8.62

51 The Bachelor ABC 8.37 52 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 8.10 53 Wonderful World of Disney ABC 8.09 54 Law and Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 7.83 55 60 Minutes (Wed.) CBS 7.66

56 8 Simple Rules ABC 7.41 “Radio Music Awards” NBC 7.41 58 Dr. Vegas CBS 7.26 59 Joan of Arcadia CBS 7.19 60 48 Hours Mystery (8 p.m.) CBS 7.16

61 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.09 62 American Dreams NBC 7.05 63 Hope & Faith ABC 7.03 64 Scrubs NBC 6.93 65 48 Hours Mystery CBS 6.77

66 7th Heaven WB 6.71 67 Desperate Housewives (Sat.) ABC 6.68 68 Father of the Pride NBC 6.64 69 Primetime Live ABC 6.52 70 The Swan 2 (9 p.m.) FOX 6.44

71 Extreme Makeover ABC 6.43 72 LAX NBC 6.34 73 Complete Savages ABC 6.24 74 Cops (9:30 p.m.) FOX 6.08 75 Less Than Perfect ABC 5.98

76 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.72 77 Smallville WB 5.69 78 Cops (9 p.m.) FOX 5.68 79 Everwood WB 5.64 80 Gilmore Girls WB 5.58

81 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 5.15 82 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.07 83 America’s Next Top Model 3 UPN 5.05 84 Swan (8 p.m.) FOX 4.60 85 One Tree Hill WB 4.57

86 The Benefactor ABC 4.55 87 Reba (9:30 p.m.) WB 4.31 88 Reba WB 4.16 89 Kevin Hill UPN 4.04 90 Charmed WB 3.96

91 Blue Collar TV WB 3.87 92 Life as We Know It ABC 3.77 93 Girlfriends UPN 3.72 94 World’s Craziest Videos FOX 3.67 95 Half and Half UPN 3.66

96 Eve UPN 3.51 One on One UPN 3.51 98 “Bedazzled” FOX 3.48 99 Totally Outrageous Behavior” FOX 3.46 100 All of Us UPN 3.41

101 “Ghost Hunters” NBC 3.37 102 The Simpsons FOX 3.29 103 “X-Files: Fight the Future” FOX 3.27 104 Enterprise UPN 3.18 105 Second Time Around UPN 3.17

106 “Scare Tactics” (8:30 p.m.) NBC 3.16 107 What I Like About You WB 3.10 108 Jack & Bobby WB 3.02 109 “Scooby Doo Halloween” WB 3.00 110 Scare Tactics NBC 2.73

Veronica Mars UPN 2.73 112 Renovate My Family FOX 2.71 113 Drew Carey’s Green Screen WB 2.70 114 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 2.07 115 America’s Next Top Model 3 (Fri.) UPN 1.82

116 Mountain WB 1.61 117 Charmed (Thu.) WB 1.55

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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 13.48 12.99

FOX 11.28 11.17

ABC 10.14 9.92

NBC 9.31 9.87

WB 3.92 3.96

UPN 3.75 3.55

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