By Lynn Elber, Television Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --Baseball was especially good to Fox, with the Atlanta-Houston World Series lifting the network to its first weekly ratings win in the young TV season.
The series rebounded from last year's contest, which hit an all-time viewership low that was attributed to the pandemic and competition from the 2020 presidential election.
The Houston Astros must-have win Sunday over the Atlanta Braves, then leading the series 3-1, was the standout so far in the potential seven-game series, according to Nielsen figures out Tuesday.
The 9-5 Astros victory drew 13.6 million viewers — a 35% jump over the 10 million who watched 2020's Los Angeles Dodgers Game 5 defeat of the Tampa Bay Rays.
Last year, the Dodgers went on to a six-game win over the Rays that posted a TV rating down 32% from the previous World Series low, the San Francisco Giants' four-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers in 2012.
Bragging rights also went to football and NBC last week, with NFL regular-season games earning the top two spots for the week.
Overall, Fox averaged 11.9 million viewers in primetime, followed by NBC with 5.4 million. CBS had 3.9 million, ABC had 3.5 million, Univision had 1.3 million, ION Television had 970,000 and Telemundo had 930,000.
Fox News Channel was the most-watched cable channel in primetime with an average 2.21 million viewers. It was followed by ESPN with 2.17 million, Hallmark with 1.28 million, MSNBC with 1.11 million and HGTV with 857,000.
ABC's "World News Tonight" led the evening news ratings competition, averaging 8.1 million viewers. NBC's "Nightly News" had 7 million, and the "CBS Evening News" had 5.2 million.
For the week of Oct. 25-31, the top 20 primetime programs, their networks and viewerships:
- NFL Football: Green Bay at Arizona, Fox, 20.3 million.
- NFL Football: Dallas at Minnesota, NBC, 15.7 million.
- MLB World Series Game 5, Fox, 13.6 million.
- "The OT," Fox, 13.3 million.
- MLB Pregame (Sunday), Fox, 12.5 million.
- NFL Pregame (Sunday), NBC, 11.8 million.
- MLB World Series Game 3, Fox, 11.2 million.
- NFL Football: New Orleans at Seattle, ESPN, 11.19 million.
- MLB World Series Game 1, Fox, 10.8 million.
- MLB World Series Game 4, Fox, 10.5 million.
- NFL Pregame (Thursday), Fox, 10.46 million.
- MLB World Series Game 2, Fox, 10.3 million.
- NFL Pregame (Sunday), NBC, 9.2 million.
- "Young Sheldon," CBS, 7.2 million.
- "60 Minutes," CBS, 7.11 million.
- "Saturday Night Football: Penn State at Ohio State," ABC, 7.1 million.
- "The Voice" (Monday), NBC, 6.9 million.
- "Chicago Fire," NBC, 6.801 million.
- "Chicago Med," NBC, 6.8 million.
- "The Voice" (Tuesday), NBC, 6.7 million.
Avid completes acquisition of Wolftech
Avid®, known for software solutions for professional media production, has completed the acquisition of Wolftech Broadcast Solutions, a leader in cloud-based multiplatform news planning, production and publishing solutions.
The acquisition enables Avid to combine its digital-first, end-to-end media solution with Wolftech’s expertise in story-centric workflow management. News organizations will be able to increase efficiency and accelerate story delivery through enhanced remote collaboration and multiplatform amplification.
Avid CEO Wellford Dillard stated, “Wolftech is unquestionably on the leading edge of where the industry is going, and this acquisition demonstrates Avid’s commitment to transform news, sports, and live production workflows. We are delighted to welcome Wolftech into the Avid family.”
Wolftech CEO Arne Berven added, “We were focused on finding a partner that could accelerate the adoption of our platform globally. We explored a number of possibilities, but when we talked to Avid, we knew it was the right match.”
The closing of the acquisition follows Avid’s announcement on October 7 that the company had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Wolftech.
With this acquisition, Avid deepens the integration between the two toolsets while continuing to embrace an open approach in partnering with a wide range of media production tools and newsroom systems. Existing Wolftech customers will benefit from Avid’s global scale for customer support and professional services.
Ian Axton, head of production operations for ITV News, said, “As a customer of both Avid and Wolftech we’re excited about the benefits this acquisition will bring to our users and our business. Wolftech has transformed... Read More