• by Wayne Friedman , October 26, 2006

Baseball reigned on Tuesday night. Fox edged out ABC on Tuesday night among 18-49 viewers. Fox ran up a 4.8 rating for its third World Series game between the St. Louis Cardinals--even though the game was down from the second game of the World Series. ABC was down versus a week ago, when it earned a 4.6/12.

ABC was led by "Dancing with the Stars," which grabbed a 5.4 rating/14 share. In head-to-head competition, "Stars" got the better of the World Series, beating it by 2.5 rating points in the 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. hour, and 1.3 rating points during the last half-hour. "Stars" ran an hour and a half--8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.--while the baseball game ran for about three and a half hours.

For the evening, Fox took in a 4.4/12 and ABC was close behind with a 4.3/11--trailed by NBC with a 3.3/9, CBS at 2.9/8, CW at 1.8/5, and Univision at 1.5/4.

"Stars" was down from its big 6.0-rated showing of a week before. That's when one of its celebrity dancers, Sara Evans, abruptly left the show. ABC's "Help Me Help You" had slight gains over recent weeks--at a 3.2/8 in 18-49--while "Boston Legal" came in at 3.1/8, the same as a week before.

NBC's new "Friday Night Lights" took in a 2.6/7, which was about the same as a week ago.

CBS' evening again was the model of consistency. Virtually all three of its hour dramas came in at about the same levels: "NCIS" at 3.0/8, "The Unit" at 2.9/7, and a special "Criminal Minds" at 2.9/8.

The CW offered up another strong performance for its two hours--"Gilmore Girls" and "Veronica Mars"--in their respective 18-34 demo areas. For 18-49, "Girls" posted a 2.0/6, and "Mars," a 1.5/4.