ALCS Helps Fox In Ratings, But CBS Is Still Ahead

DAVID BAUDER

NEW YORK (AP) — A coast-to-coast baseball playoff series involving New York and Los Angeles almost — but not quite — enabled Fox to loosen CBS' stranglehold on the prime-time television ratings lead.

The final game of the Yankees-Angels American League Championship Series was seen by 15.5 million people on Sunday, the Nielsen Co. said. Football is traditionally a better TV draw, but the baseball game topped Sunday's NFL game between Arizona and the N.Y. Giants.

Four games of the Yankees-Angels series on Fox were ranked among Nielsen's top 25 shows for the week. But of the 12 scripted shows in the top 25, nine of them were on CBS.

"NCIS" was again television's most popular show for the week, Nielsen said.

CBS averaged 10.7 million viewers (6.8 rating, 11 share) for the week. Fox had 10.3 million (6.3, 10) and won handily among the 18-to-49-year-old demographic many advertisers covet. ABC had 9.1 million viewers (5.9, 10), NBC had 7.2 million (4.6, 8), the CW had 2 million (1.3, 2) and ION Television had 880,000 (0.6, 1).