Last night's Game Six of the Mets-Braves NLCS earned a
16.8/28 preliminary overnight Nielsen rating on NBC, up 49%
from the 11.3/22 ALCS Indians-Yankees Game Six last year,
also on NBC. The game earned a 31.1/48 local rating in N.Y.
and a 45.0/62 in Atlanta (THE DAILY). Sunday's 15-inning
NLCS Game Five earned a final national 12.0/21 rating,
marking the highest-rated afternoon LCS telecast since '87.
NBC had a five-game cumulative average of a 10.2/19, which
is up 17% over last year's 8.7/17 for the first five games
of the '98 ALCS on NBC (NBC). Fox reported that its five-
game ALCS averaged a 9.2/16, up 21% from last year's Padres-
Braves six-game NLCS and the highest LCS number since Fox
started airing MLB in '96 (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 10/20).
PEACOCK STRUTTIN' WITH MLB: DAILY VARIETY's Tom
Bierbaum writes, "Brawny baseball numbers have carried NBC
to the biggest weeklong households win [October 11-17] for
any net in a non-Super Bowl week since June 1998, the last
time Michael Jordan played in an NBA Final" (DAILY VARIETY,
10/20). In DC, Lisa de Moraes lists NBC among her weekly
"winners," as the network won the week and "scored its
biggest weekly audience -- 15.6 million -- since the record-
setting June 1998 NBA Finals" (WASHINGTON POST, 10/20).
HEAD TO HEAD: ABC's Cowboys-Giants "MNF" game earned a
national 12.1/20 rating and earned a 7.9/21 in adults 18-49.
Fox earned a 9.6/16 and a 5.1/14 in adults 18-49 for
Yankees-Red Sox Game Five. Meanwhile, ESPN's Sunday Night
Redskins-Cardinals game -- up against both LCS -- earned a
2.7 rating in adults 18-49. It was "cable's lowest rating"
for a regular season Sunday night NFL game since a TNT game
in '97 and it was the lowest ever on ESPN (DAILY VARIETY,
10/20). ESPN's Sunday night game saw a 50% drop in
viewership and was seen in 4.1 million HHs. ESPN's "NFL
PrimeTime" dropped from 3.4 million HHs on October 10 to 2.2
million on Sunday and the "SportsCenter" after the game
dropped from 3.1 million to 2.3 million HHs (HOLLYWOOD
REPORTER, 10/20). But ESPN's Sunday night games are still
up 21% over last year (Rudy Martzke, USA TODAY, 10/20).
MLB REVIEWS: In Atlanta, Prentis Rogers reviews NBC's
broadcast of last night's Game Six and reports that late in
the game, analyst Joe Morgan "offered superb analysis on the
strategies involved" (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 10/20). In a
sidebar, Rogers also praises the work of Jim Gray and Craig
Sager, who have given "relevant and revealing tidbits of
information" (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 10/20). In Phoenix, Jim
Gintonio reviews MLB TV personnel and writes that NBC's Bob
Costas has "toned down his approach some, and it makes a
difference." Fox's Bob Brenly "continues to show that he is
the best analyst in the game" (AZ REPUBLIC, 10/20). USA
TODAY's Rudy Martzke writes that Costas is "back, heading
into the World Series with the confidence and humor he has
displayed for years. Not the least of reasons for his
improvement is avoiding on-air essays on baseball's problems
and sticking to the game at hand" (USA TODAY, 10/20).
IN THE CROWD: Time Warner Chair Gerald Levin attended
last night's game at Turner Field and "wore a Braves uniform
shirt over his dress shirt" (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 10/20).
