'Millionaire' Viewership Down

By Caitlin O'toole

07/07/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" dipped sharply in ratings this week, making room for 18.9 million Americans who tuned in to "Frasier" to see Niles and Daphne together at last. The game show averaged 19 million viewers in October, a 21 percent drop from its average of 24 million from January through September, according to Nielsen Media Research. ABC attributes the plunge to the fact that "Millionaire," which is now on four nights a week, has had some stiff competition this month -- including baseball playoffs, The World Series, and premieres of competing network shows. Executive Producer Michael Davies says that in the end, he has no doubt that "Millionaire" will stay on top, even referring to the show as "the Energizer bunny," and adding that it is "going to keep on going when everybody else is in repeats." The Nielsen top 10 for Oct. 23-29 (the rating is the percentage of the nation's estimated 102.2 million TV homes, with each point representing 1,022,000 households):

1. "Frasier," NBC, 18.9, 19.3
2. "ER," NBC, 17.6, 18.0 million homes
3. "Friends," NBC, 14.7, 15.0 million homes
4. "60 Minutes," CBS, 13.1, 13.4 million homes
5. "World Series Game 5: N.Y. Yankees vs. N.Y. Mets," Fox, 13.1, 13.4 million homes
6. "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," (Sunday), ABC, 13.1, 13.4 million homes
7. "Everybody Loves Raymond," CBS, 13.0, 13.3 million homes
8. "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," (Tuesday), ABC, 12.7, 12.9 million homes
9. "World Series Game 4: N.Y. Yankees vs. N.Y. Mets," Fox, 12.5, 12.8 million homes
10. "The Practice," ABC, 12.5, 12.7 million homes