Detroit, MI

Nielsens: Baseball strikes out

Gary Levin, USA TODAY

The San Francisco-Detroit series was a washout
NBC's 'Mockingbird Lane' drew 5.5 million viewers
'The Walking Dead' had another big week

San Francisco relief pitcher Sergio Romo
begins his World Series championship celebration after striking out Detroit 's Miguel Cabrera in Game 4. However, the World Series was no ratings star this year, drawing only 12.8 million viewers.

Foul ball: Fox's World Series batted a record-low 12.8 million viewers as San Francisco trounced Detroit in four straight games. That's down from 16.6 million last year, and worse than the previous low of 13.6 million for a five-game Tampa Bay-Philadelphia matchup spread over six nights in 2008. Sunday's decisive game was tops with 15.5 million, but ranked below NBC's Sunday Night Football (17.7 million).

Scare tactics: NBC's Mockingbird Lane, the pilot for a once-planned remake of The Munsters, drew a third-place 5.5 million viewers Friday, but easily scared off Fox's season premiere of Kitchen Nightmares (a low 2.7 million). Tuesday's season opener of ABC's Happy Endings (5.6 million) fell between rival sitcoms, NBC's Go On (6.1 million) and Fox's New Girl (5.2 million), while Don't Trust the B---- in Apt. 23, which followed, returned with a series-low 4.2 million.

Sunday surge: On the eve of Hurricane Sandy Sunday, as viewing levels increased, AMC's The Walking Dead (10.5 million viewers) jumped by a million over the previous week, nearing its record Oct. 14 premiere, while Showtime's Homeland rose to 2.1 million. And the storm-focused Weather Channel averaged 1.9 million in prime time.

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