NBC Strikes Out Competion

by Marcus Errico

Thanks to the Yankees sweeping away the Braves, NBC swept away the competition in the weekly ratings race.

The final two games of the World Series finished on top of the Nielsen rankings for the week ended October 31, easily outdistancing all other prime-time fare. But while the Yankees-Braves matchup dominated the ratings, scoring 14 percent more viewers than last year's contest, the '99 Series was still the second-lowest rated ever.

Although NBC rode baseball to another first-place finish, the Peacock was hoping for a bit more competitive championship. The four-game sweep meant that NBC didn't have a game to broadcast Thursday night, and was instead stuck with a batch of reruns that weren't exactly must-see. The network's usually invincible Friends-Frasier-ER juggernaut barely eked out a win over CBS' lineup of all-new shows.

In the end, though, NBC finished with a 9.6 rating and 16 share to CBS' 8.9 and 15. ABC (7.8/13) and Fox (6.1/10) followed. In a tightly contested battle for Fifth Network, the flagging WB (2.7/4) squeaked by UPN (2.6/4). The barely there PAX netlet finished with a 0.8 rating and 1 share. (A ratings point equals just over 1 million households; the share represents the number of turned-on TV tuned to a particular show.) NBC also leads CBS in the year-to-date figures.

Meanwhile, Fox got a needed boost from the season premiere of Ally McBeal, which placed in the Top 10 with an 11.1 rating. But the news wasn't all good for Fox: the premiere of Jennifer Love Hewitt's Time of Your Life, which came on right before Ally McBeal, finished way down at No. 69. And that wasn't even as bad as Party of Five--the show that spawed Time of Your Life was 10 slots lower than its spinoff at a woeful 79.

At least those shows will survive the season, unlike NBC's just-canceled Cold Feet--the network's lowest-ranked show. The news looks equally grim for Fox's cellar-dwelling Get Real and NBC's Freaks and Geeks (which, in the absence of Cold Feet, assumes the dubious distinction of being the Peacock's least-watched show.)

Here's how the Top 10 played out: 1. World Series Game 4 (NBC), 17.8; 2. World Series Game 3, (NBC), 16.8; 3. NFL Monday Night Football: Atlanta at Pittsburgh (ABC), 12.5; 4. Touched by an Angel (CBS), 12.0; 5. Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS), 11.7; 6. Friends (NBC), 11.6; 7. 60 Minutes (CBS), 11.4; (tie) 7. World Series Pregame Show (NBC), 11.4; 9. Becker (CBS), 11.2; 10. Ally McBeal (Fox), 11.1; (tie) 10. Frasier (NBC), 11.1.