See Also: 'They Asked Me Why I Believe In You' Episode Guide

Desperate Housewives showed its fourth week of decline in total viewership, but performed well considering it was up against the Baseball World Series. Meanwhile its leadout show Grey's Anatomy is proving better at retaining viewers.

According to figures released by MediaWeek, "They Asked Me Why I Believe In You" scored a 17 rating with a 24 share. These figures mean that of all households in the United States with television sets, 17% were tuned into DH, as well as 24% of those households actually watching television on Sunday at 9:00pm. The show pulled a 10.9/24 rating in the coveted 18–49 demographic.

Here are this week's Desperate Housewives ratings in context:

Episode	Overnight	Viewers	18–49
This week's episode	17.5/24	24.86	10.9/24
Last week's episode	18/25	25.51	11.3/25
This time last year	13.3/19	21.87	9.7/22
Series premiere	13.5/21	21.28	8.8/21
Series high	20.4/29	30.03	13.3/31

With 24.86 million viewers, it was down once again in total viewership, and was also down in both the overnights and the 18–49 demographic. Desperate Housewives lead-out Grey's Anatomy was rock steady in its numbers with a 13.3/20 rating, 18.41 million viewers and 13.3/20 in the 18–49 demographic. In fact, Grey's Anatomy has been holding on to its viewers better than its lead-in show. Desperate Housewives has seen a 12% drop in total viewers since its season premiere a month ago, while Grey's Anatomy has dropped only 6%. While Desperate Housewives clearly has more viewers, if the trend continues this gap will shrink.

With game 2 of the Baseball World Series, Fox came second with 12.9/19, 15.51 million viewers and a 5.2/12 score in the 18–49 demo. CBS was third in the hour with the second half of Cold Case and the start of the movie Enough, followed by NBC with Law & Order: Criminal Intent and the WB with a rerun of Supernatural.

ABC's lead wasn't quite as large due to the baseball, but was still significant. It beat Fox by 2.04 million viewers and its 6.8/16 in the 18–49 beat Fox's 4.8/12.

MediaWeek's original ratings report, written by Programming Insider Marc Berman, can be found by following this link.

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