World Series hits it out of park

The first Game 7 of the World Series since 2002 drew 23.2 million viewers to Fox during primetime Friday according to preliminary Nielsens, making it the most watched baseball game in seven years.Total audience for the World Series has typically gone up by at least a million when the more precise afternoon update comes in, meaning that Game 7 (in which St. Louis topped Texas) could reach the 25 million neighborhood but might fall short of passing the first episode of ''Two and a Half Men'' with Ashton Kutcher (28.7 million) as the most-watched program on TV since the Academy Awards.Nonetheless, the mass audience, on a night that Fox typically would have struggled to reach 3 million viewers with ''Kitchen Nightmares'' and ''Fringe,'' completes a long-awaited World Series boon for Fox, which in the previous seven years had seen only one World Series go past five games. Thursday's Game 6, a 10-9 extra-inning victory by St. Louis that was considered an instant classic, broke 21 million viewers.The last time the World Series crossed 30 million viewers was with Game 7 of the 2002 World Series between Anaheim and San Francisco. The top-rated Fall Classic contest since that time was Game 4 of the 2004 World Series, in which Boston won its first title in nearly a century by sweeping St. Louis before 28.8 million.Against the World Series on the East Coast, NBC's series premiere of ''Grimm'' managed to pull a 2.1 rating and 6 share according to preliminary Nielsens with 6.5 million viewers overall. ''Grimm'' improved upon its lead-in, the season premiere of ''Chuck'' (1.0/3, 3.4 million) on its new night. On the West Coast, the World Series was still wrapping up when ''Chuck'' aired and was over by the time ''Grimm'' bowed. NBC wrapped up its night with ''Dateline'' (1.3/4, 4.8 million). Once the World Series extended to a seventh game, CBS pulled its regularly scheduled firstrun programming Friday and went with drama repeats. However, ABC maintained its schedule with two episodes of ''Extreme Makeover: Home Edition'' (1.1/3, 4.2 million) and ''20/20'' (1.2/3, 5.2 million), as did the CW with ''Nikita'' (0.6/2, 1.8 million) and ''Supernatural'' (0.7/2, 1.7 million).In the 18-49 demo, Friday's World Series Game 7 had a 6.8 rating and 20 share among viewers 18-49 during primetime, peaking at 7.9/22, 24.8 million between 10:30 and 11 p.m. Eastern, according to the prelims. Contact Jon Weisman at jon.weisman@variety.com