OUT-OF-THE-PARK RATINGS FOR SERIES’ 6TH GAME

A high-scoring, 11-inning sixth game of the World Series averaged 19.7 million viewers Thursday night, according to preliminary overnight ratings. (The number is expected to climb when final results are released.) The game lasted until 12:45 a.m. Eastern Time, but early results suggest that many, if not most, viewers hung on until the last out (or, in this case, an 11th-inning home run by the Cardinals’ David Freese). Against such strong competition, CBS managed to draw solid numbers on its own, pulling in 14.3 million viewers for The Big Bang Theory and 12.2 million for The Mentalist. ABC had an OK performance from Grey’s Anatomy, which attracted 9.8 million viewers. Thursday’s game sets up a seventh and deciding game, the first time that the Series has gone through seven games since 2002. With the game certain to drain viewers from other networks tonight, CBS announced that it will air repeats of A Gifted Man, CSI: NY, and Blue Bloods instead of the scheduled new episodes. But NBC said it will go ahead with the season premiere of Chuck and the series premiere of Grimm. The game also delays the return of Fox’s Fringe for another week.