Fox's Big Sunday Ratings From Sports Double-Dose

World Series Game WinFox double-teamed the networks on Sunday night with big sports events--an NFL game and an improving World Series--to easily take the top spot among key viewers.

Fox earned a sizable Nielsen preliminary 5.6 rating/14 share among 18-49 viewers, thanks to a New York Giants-Pittsburgh Steelers overrun early in the evening that grabbed a large 7.9 rating/23 share.

This carried on to a post-game NFL show, "The OT"--earning a big 5.9/16 and then on to the World Series, which averaged at least a 5.0 rating/12 share in preliminary results. This will be an improvement over the mid-four ratings Fox had over the first three games.

NBC, a usual contender for the night with its own NFL game, got out of the way this Sunday and instead ran the movie "The 40 Year Old Virgin"--which showed its age by only bringing the network to a 1.9/4, earning fourth place in both the 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. hours. This also gave NBC a fourth-place spot for the night with a 1.6/4.

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Even against Fox's big numbers, ABC was able to make some ground-- improving its second place from a week ago with a 3.9/10, up from a 3.7/9 a week ago. "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" grew to a 3.9/10 from a 3.6/9 the week before. "Brothers & Sisters" also moved up a bit to a 3.6/9, from a 3.4/8 the week before.

The highest-rated non-sports show of the night, "Desperate Housewives," stayed the same as a week ago, at a 5.7/13. CBS landed in third place with a 2.6/7--with its best results from "The Amazing Race" at 9 p.m. with a 3.0/7 and "Cold Case" at 10 p.m. at a 2.8/6.

CW, renting its network Sunday night space to Media Rights Capital, performed at about the same levels as in previous weeks for shows "In Harm's Way," "Valentine," and "Easy Money"--collectively earning a 0.3/1 among 18-49 viewers and a 0.3/1 among its more key 18-34 audience. It went to an average 720,000 total viewers versus 690,000 the week before.

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