• by Wayne Friedman , October 23, 2009

 

ABC won Thursday night -- even with Fox's improving baseball playoff ratings. Overall, Fox's baseball contests are trending up -- 27% higher among adult 18-49 viewers -- versus a similar playoff game of a year ago.

ABC averaged a Nielsen preliminary 4.0 rating/11 share among 18-49 viewers -- about the same as a week ago. Fox was at a 3.3/9 followed by CBS at 3.0/8; NBC at 2.4/7; Univision at 1.4/4; and CW at 0.8/2.

CBS and CW ran for cover a bit -- going into reruns. An original "Survivor: Samoa" from CBS still won the 8 p.m. time period with a 4.0/11 share. Fox's New York Yankees-Los Angeles Angels contest pulled in a 3.1/10 during the time period with ABC's "FlashForward" getting to the same numbers.

After that, CBS went into repeats with "CSI" and "The Mentalist," which gave ABC clear sailing. "Grey's Anatomy" earned a 5.3/14 -- the best-rated show of the night -- and its 10 p.m. "Private Practice" got a 3.8/10, just a tick behind the Fox baseball game.

NBC stayed about the same against week-ago numbers: "Community" hanging on with a 1.9/6; "Parks & Recreation" at 2.1/6; "The Office" at 4.2/11; "30 Rock" at 3.2/8, and "Jay Leno" at 1.7/5.

CW reruns tallied "Vampire Diaries" with a 0.9/2 and "Supernatural" with a 0.8/2.