• by Wayne Friedman , October 28, 2011

Early results of a dramatic big game six in the World Series between the Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals earned Fox good but not historic ratings. But game seven could boost fortunes far more.

That could be the reason CBS announced early Friday morning it was pulling its lineup of original episodes on the night -- saving its programming assets -- and replacing them with repeats of "A Gifted Man," "CSI: NY" and "CSI: Miami." NBC's start up of the final season of "Chuck" on Friday will surely be affected. 

Fox's results from Nielsen preliminary results show a 5.8 rating/15 share among key 18-49 viewers -- almost a ratings point and a half full higher than World Series' game one on Thursday of a week ago before.

Overall, game six had significantly more interest that earlier games: Game five was at a 4.2/11; game four was also at a 4.2/11; game three (Saturday night) was a 3.2/10; game two was at a 4.0/11; and game one was at a 4.2/12.

CBS produced just about half of those results of Fox on Thursday night, a 3.0/8. Its big Thursday show "The Big Bang Theory" suffered a bit, dropping 12% on the night, for a 4.5 rating/13 share. Other shows suffered less or were even with a week ago results: "Rules of Engagement" at 8:30 p.m., landed at a 3.4/9; "Person of Interest" at 9 p.m., was at a 2.6/6 and "The Mentalist" at 10 p.m. was the same at 2.5/5.

ABC was a bit behind CBS, averaging  2.8/7 on the night -- with most of its lineup actually gaining -- "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" was up 5% over last year's airing, a 2.3/6. "Grey's Anatomy" was up a bit to a 3.7/9; as was "Private Practice" at 2.4/6.

NBC mostly young and more male Thursday night lineup was the most impacted --- with most shows falling over 10%: "Community" at 1.4/4; "Parks and Recreation" with 1.8/5;  "The Office" earning 2.8/7 and "Prime Suspect" just 1.2/3. Only "Whitney" was up on the night, one-tenth of a rating point to a 2.1/5.  NBC ended the night over a full rating point behind ABC at a 1.7/4.

The CW mostly young women viewers went unaffected the playoff baseball: "The Vampire Diaries" was up 7% among 18-34 viewers to a 1.5/5; and was the same versus a week ago among women 18-34 to a 2.0/6. "The Secret Circle" was up 11% among 18-34 viewers to a 1.0/3, and 8% higher in women 18-34 to a 1.3/3.

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