“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America is ruled by it like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again. Oh, people will come, Ray. People will come most definitely come.”. James Earl Jones intoned those magic words, written by Phil Alden Robinson from the movie “Field of Dreams” as his character Terrance explained to Kevin Costner’s character what baseball was all about. Robinson, who also directed the movie, adapted the script from W.P. Kinsella’s novel ‘Shoeless Joe’. In the movie, Jones & Costner’s characters go to the ballpark near Kenmore Square in Boston located at 4 Yawkey Way. That cathedral known as Fenway, provided the backdrop once again Wednesday evening as the Boston Red Sox defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 8-1 behind strong pitching in Game #1 of the 2013 World Series. FOX was the beneficiary. People came to watch, all 14.40 million of them. It was up 28.13% for the evening compared to last year on this day. At its peak, it drew 15.47 million viewers at 830P. It won every single half hour. That, against a very strong competitive lineup especially from CBS, is called dominating.
CBS, with its powerful Thursday night lineup, was no match and finished #2, a very strange position for The Tiffany Network on this night. ‘Survivor’ led off at 8P with 9.52 million viewers. ‘Criminal Minds’ was the networks top program and finished with 11.55 million. ‘CSI’, in its 300 episode drew 10.45 milion, down 12.5% compared to last year’s same day numbers.
ABC finished #3 with ‘The Middle’ at 8P drawing 8.31 million and at 830P ‘Back in The Game ‘ saw 6.27 million view their program. ‘Modern Family’ was The Alphabet Network’s top show for the evening at 9P with 10.32 million. But ‘Super Fun Night’ at 930P lost over 4+ million viewers, finishing with 5.79 million while ‘Nashville’ at 10P finished with only 5.46 million viewers. It was the lowest program on ABC Thursday evening.
NBC #4 for the evening, led off with ‘Revolution’ at 8P with 5.04 million which represented a 12% increase over the same time period last season. At 9P ‘Law & Order: SVU’ upped the ante a little bit with 5.53 million but was down 22% compared to last year’s same day. However, The Peacock Network fell off of the charts with the now cancelled ‘Ironside’ losing 1.7 million viewers by finishing with only 3.85 million viewers, down 55.26% from the comparable day last season.
A&E finished as the #1 cable network for the evening and the #5 network on all of television for the evening gaining 4.060 million viewers on average with a complete evening of ‘Duck Dynasty’. The top hour was at 10P with 8.401 million viewers.
The CW had ‘Arrow’ leading off at 8P and finished with 2.89 million while at 9P, ‘The Tomorrow People’ dropped nearly a million viewers to finish with 1.92 million.
In late night, ‘Tonight Show with Jay Leno’ won with a 2.8/7 while CBS’ ‘Late Show with David Letterman’ with a rerun drew 2.2/6. ABC’s ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ finished a 1.9.5. ‘Nightline’ averaged 1.3/4 at 1235A. ‘Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson’ on CBS drew 1.1/4 with a rerun at 1235A while ‘at 135A, ‘Last all with Carson Daly’ on NBC averaged 0.8/4.
For the record, FOX was #1 with 13.730 million viewers and a 8.3 rating and a 13 share. CBS #2 had an average of 10.366 million viewers and finished with a 6.5 rating/10 share. ABC #3 finished with 6.952 million viewers and recorded a 4.5 rating and a 7 share; NBC #4 drew 4.823 million and a 3.2/5; A&E #5 with 4.060 million viewers; Univision #6 with 3.2 million and a 1.6/3; The CW #7 with 2.351 million and a 1.5/2 while Telemundo #8 finished with 1.2 million viewers an average 0.7 rating and 1 share.
ACROSS THE POND: Just as the first pitch of the World Series was made, FOX International made a deal with Major League Baseball that will dramatically extend the league’s TV reach across Europe. The Pact calls for FI outlets in Europe to carry all MLB games live, from the regular season through the All-Star Game and post-season. The deal began last night with the first game of the 2013 World Series in Boston (see above lead story). The deal, as part of a big push by FIC, which encompasses more than 300 channels across Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa, strengthens its sports offerings globally. In other news, viewing of BBC shows on the iPlayer via tablets and smartphones overtook computers for the first time in September, with 70 million requests. Mobile and tablet viewing accounted for 41% of the 176 million requests for BBC TV programs on the iPlayer in September. The BBC said it found that viewers flock to the iPlayer at 10P, with many choosing to switch from watching traditional TV to tablets to catch their favorite shows in bed. There is also another spike in the morning as consumers choose to go mobile to catch TV on their way to work. Just 3 years ago, iPlayer drew only 5 million requests a month from mobile devices. Also, on another front, BBC Global News is producing original short videos to appear on Twitter. Rather than tweeting clips from existing shows. The videos, called #BBCTrending, will offer insights on news of the day, after a pre-roll from a sponsor.http://on.fb.me/19hUBIO
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