ABC Wins the Ratings Series With 40% Share

The Minnesota Twins won the World Series and ABC won the prime-time ratings Sunday night with its telecast of the deciding game of the baseball championship, preliminary figures indicated Monday.

Overnight ratings from 15 major cities showed ABC drawing 40% of the available viewers during prime time (8-11 p.m.) Sunday, compared to 25% for CBS and 23% for NBC. For the full baseball broadcast, which extended beyond 11 p.m. on the East Coast, ABC averaged a 44% share of audience.

An ABC spokesman said that the World Series’ national rating, due out today, is expected to be even higher since neither Minneapolis nor St. Louis was among the 15 cities included in the overnight sample.