WORLD SERIES A SLOW STARTER

It may not have been on the same scale as the Texas Rangers’ loss to the San Francisco Giants Wednesday night (the Giants won 11-7), but Fox nevertheless took a beating in the first game of the World Series, which averaged 13.44 million viewers. That figure is down more than 31 percent from Game 1 of last year’s Series, which averaged 19.51 million viewers. That game, of course, featured teams from the nation’s largest market, New York, and the fourth-largest, Philadelphia. And it was not blacked out in most of those two markets, as this one was, by a dispute between Fox and Cablevision over retransmission consent fees. Against the Series, CBS held up surprisingly well — perhaps aided by the blackout. Indeed, with 13.94 million viewers at 9:00 p.m., its Criminal Minds. beat baseball. In fact, in every primetime half-hour, the network showed solid improvement over the comparable Wednesday a year ago.