Baseball (Not Emmy) Nielsen's Darling

By Stephen M. Silverman

11/07/2001 at 04:13 PM EST

The seven-game World Series lifted Fox to an unusual win in the weekly Nielsen ratings in the first toss of the ball in the key November sweeps. Fox scored its third-highest-rated night ever Sunday (also known in some quarters as Emmy night), when the Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the New York Yankees to take the series as 39.1 million viewers tuned in. Four other World Series games fell during the week and all scored in the top 10, giving Fox a boost as the fall sweeps period used to set local ad rates got under way. For Oct. 29-Nov. 4, Fox was the most watched network, averaging 21 million viewers, while CBS averaged 12.9 million viewers. NBC had 12.3 million viewers; ABC, 9.7 million; UPN, 4.8 million; the WB, 4.1 million; and Pax, 1.2 million. (And, for the record, though the Emmy audience dropped 22% from last year's, the awards telecast managed to draw 17.1 million viewers and contributed to a second-place finish for CBS for the week.) Last week's Top 10 shows:

1. "Fox World Series Game 7: NY Yankees at Arizona," Fox, 23.5, 24.8 million homes
2. "Friends," NBC, 16.8, 17.8 million homes
3. "ER," NBC, 16.3, 17.2 million homes
4. "Fox World Series Game 4: Arizona at NY Yankees," Fox, 15.8, 16.7 million homes
5. "Fox World Series Game 3: Arizona at NY Yankees," Fox, 15.4, 16.3 million homes
6. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 14.5, 15.3 million homes
7. "Fox World Series Game 5: Arizona at NY Yankees," Fox, 14.4, 15.2 million homes
8. "Friends," Thursday 8:30, NBC, 14.0, 14.8 million homes
9. "Fox World Series Game 6: NY Yankees at Arizona," Fox, 13.8, 14.5 million homes
10. "Everybody Loves Raymond," CBS, 13.1, 13.9 million homes