So Far, Subway Series Is Slow to Leave Station

“New York, New York” hasn’t been a happy tune thus far for Fox, as the “subway” World Series between the Yankees and Mets has gotten off to a slow start compared with last year’s box score, based on viewing estimates issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Viewing of the first two games Saturday and Sunday was down nearly 20% compared with a year ago, when the Yankees played the Atlanta Braves--still enough to lift Fox into third place for the week.

While viewers continue to sample new programs, meanwhile, ratings for several of those series have already dropped sharply, especially when established shows enter the picture. CBS’ “The Fugitive,” for example, was off almost 30% Friday opposite the season premiere of “Providence,” with Melina Kanakaredes--compared to its launch two weeks before. In similar fashion, “Law & Order” and its spinoff, “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” laid down the law against ABC’s “Gideon’s Crossing” and CBS’ “Nash Bridges,” with the latter down by 3 million viewers from its season premiere.

ABC remains on top thanks to “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” but the quiz show continues to trend downward in terms of overall audience (off by roughly 1 million viewers versus the previous week) and especially the young-adult audience. In fact, despite finishing first by a solid margin in total viewing, ABC ranked third last week among adults ages 18 to 49.

Cable Top 10

Here are Nielsen’s top 10 cable programs in prime time last week, also ranked by total viewers (in millions).

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Net- View- Program work ers 1. Sunday Night Football ESPN 6.65 2. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) TNN 5.94 3. “Pretty Woman” TBS 5.63 4. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) TNN 5.60 5. Spongebob Squarepants NICK 3.43 6. Wrestling (Mon., 8 p.m.) TNT 3.24 7. Jackass MTV 3.07 8. Rugrats NICK 3.06 9. Wild Thornberrys NICK 3.01 10. “Shriek/Last Friday 13th” USA 2.97

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Network Averages

Here is the number of viewers that each network averaged per hour of prime time, for last week and for the season.

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Last Season week to date ABC 12.93 million 13.48 NBC 12.22 11.96 CBS 11.44 12.86 FOX 11.44 9.73 UPN 4.53 4.57 WB 4.13 4.29

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Southland Viewing

Here are Nielsen’s Top 10 prime-time programs in the Los Angeles area during the same week. The rankings are based on the number of households watching.

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Sta- House- Program tion holds 1. Will & Grace KNBC 990,768 2. Friends KNBC 958,635 3. Will & Grace (8:30 p.m.) KNBC 905,080 4. ER KNBC 883,558 5. The Practice KABC 846,169 6. World Series Post. (Sun.) KTTV 792,614 7. Just Shoot Me KNBC 733,714 Millionaire (Sun.) KABC 733,714 9. The West Wing KNBC 706,926 10. Law & Order KNBC 696,215

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