Baseball matchups score big Nielsens

'Roswell' viewers vanish in show's second week

By TOM BIERBAUM

With exciting teams from top markets battling it out, playoff baseball continues to knock the Nielsen ball out of the park.

Wednesday's Game 1 American League matchup between the N.Y. Yankees and Boston Red Sox on Fox batted in the highest rating for a second primetime telecast of baseball's league-championship round since 1995, and beat the last comparable telecast by 21% in households.

And that means the Yankees are so far winning the Nielsen battle of New York, edging out the previous night's first game of the N.Y. Mets-Atlanta Braves National League series, telecast on NBC.

Meanwhile, in Wednesday's nonbaseball Nielsen highlights, 1.27 million "Roswell" viewers vanished in that show's second week and ABC's sitcom rookie "Oh Grow Up" struggled.

Fox's Yankees-Red Sox game drew 14.68 million viewers and a 5.7 rating, 17 share, in adults 18-49, edging the strong numbers from the previous night's Braves-Mets NBC coverage (14.50 million, 5.2/15).

Best stats since '95

These are baseball's best Nielsens for the first two prime telecasts of the league-championship round since 1995, when a different playoff format boosted ratings. This year's averages will quickly decline, though, if the Mets and Red Sox don't win at least a game or two vs. their favored rivals.

Wednesday afternoon's second Braves-Mets NBC telecast didn't do as well, grounding into a 7.3/17 households average in Nielsen's 46 metered markets. That's down 26% from a year-ago Yankees-Cleveland Indians 11-inning game that surged in the ratings when it ran over into primetime.

At 9 p.m., the WB's "Roswell" (5.44 million, 2.3/6 in adults 18-49) crashed 23% below its premiere 18-49 rating. In part the drop reflects baseball competition and the loss of Chicago superstation WGN as a WB affil.

At 9:30, ABC's "Oh Grow Up" (9.84 million, 4.8/12 in adults 18-49) is getting into trouble, retaining just 68% of its 18-49 lead-in from "Drew Carey."

Each adults 18-49 rating point reps 1.24 million viewers, 1% of the U.S. total. The share is also a percentage, but measured against only viewers watching TV during the slot involved.