Fox was the overall leader in the ratings game during October because of 2 huge sports events. According to time zone-adjusted figures from Nielsen, Game 4 of Yankees vs. Phillies netted in an average of 22.8 million viewers overall. Compared to last year’s Game 4 between the Phillies and Rays, that’s a big jump of 47% in viewers. The World Series game was telecast after the NFL’s Vikings vs. Packers game which itself had 33 million viewers during the opening half hour. The postgame football show “The OT” also had great success with 18.2 million viewers
ABC came in 2nd overall largely because of the hit series “Desperate Housewives”, which had 13.8 million viewers. “Brothers & Sisters” was the 2nd hit for ABC with 9.4 million viewers, followed by “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” with 10.8 million viewers and the ever popular “America’s Funniest Home Videos” which was down in ratings but still held the 4th spot in ABC with 7.8 million viewers overall.
“Amazing race” and “60 minutes” were the winners for CBS which held 3rd place on Sunday. “Amazing race” raked in 11.1 million viewers overall, while “60 minutes” which ran against the big sports on Fox did a decent job bringing in 12.3 million viewers. However the dramas “Three rivers” and “Cold case” only managed 7.7 million and 8.6 million viewers respectively.
NBC lagged behind in fourth place, largely because of its popular “Sunday night football” taking a break because of the World Series. “Football Night in America” could manage only 2.6 million viewers and even the movie “National Treasure” drummed up only 4.6 million viewers.