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Series a winner for Fox, but doesn't match last year

By DAVID BAUDER Associated Press

The Houston Astros may not have the drawing power of the Chicago Cubs, but Fox isn't about to complain.

The network was blessed with a seven-game World Series for the second straight year, which is ideal for business. The Astros' victory over the Dodgers reached an average of 28.3 million viewers, the Nielsen company said.

That's nowhere near the 40 million that 2016's ultimate game between the Cubs and Cleveland Indians reached. But both those teams were bucking a history of futility, and the seventh game was breathtakingly close. The Astros won their first championship and dominated in the seventh game.

Still, a solid Series enabled Fox to win the ratings race for a second straight week, averaging 9.7 million viewers in prime time. CBS had 8.2 million, NBC had 6.3 million, ABC had 4.5 million, Telemundo had 1.5 million, Univision had 1.4 million, the CW had 1.3 million and ION Television had 1.2 million.

Fox News Channel was the week's most popular cable network, averaging 2.73 million viewers in prime time. ESPN had 2.24 million, Hallmark had 1.9 million, MSNBC had 1.87 million and USA had 1.27 million.

ABC's "World News Tonight" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.6 million viewers. NBC's "Nightly News" had 8.1 million and the "CBS Evening News" had 6.4 million.

For the week of Oct. 30-Nov. 5, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: World Series Game 7: Houston at L.A. Dodgers, 28.29 million; World Series Game 6: Houston at L.A. Dodgers, 22.33 million; "60 Minutes," CBS, 15.09 million; NFL Football: Oakland at Miami, NBC, 14.36 million; "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 14.16 million; "Young Sheldon," CBS, 12.83 million; "NCIS," CBS, 12.11 million; "Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick," NBC, 11.43 million; "The Good Doctor," ABC, 10.58 million; NFL Football: Denver at Kansas City," ESPN, 10.49 million.

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ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is owned by CBS Corp. CW is a joint venture of Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. Fox is owned by 21st Century Fox. NBC and Telemundo are owned by Comcast Corp. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks.