Angel

FOX’s baseball carried the beginning of the evening, as either the Red Sox and Yankees or Cubs and Marlins took 8 p.m. with a 9.0/15. Second place went to ABC’s comedies "My Wife and Kids" (7.4/12) and "It’s All Relative" (6.9/11). CBS was third with "60 Minutes II," leaving NBC’s "Ed" in fourth with a 5.6/9. On The WB, "Smallville" soared to a 4.2/7, pounding "Enterprise" on UPN.

The games on FOX improved to a 10.5/16 at 9 p.m., cutting into the audiences for both NBC’s "The West Wing" (9.0/14) and ABC’s "The Bachelor." CBS took fourth with "King of Queens" (7.7/12) and the season premiere of "Becker" (6.8/10).

With a stronger lead-in, the WB’s veteran Angel (#5 : 4.7/ 7) outdelivered UPN’s struggling Jake 2.0 (#6 : 2.6/ 4) by 81 percent. Compared to former failed time period occupant The Twilight Zone (3.3/ 5 on Oct. 9, 2002), Jake 2.0 is off 21 percent year-to-year.