It seems like everyone is cranked up about ESPN these days. Cox is threatening to convert the network into a premium channel or boot it entirely.
   The NFL is incensed over the fictional series “Playmakers” for making pro football players look like wife-beating druggies. The new morning show on ESPN2, “Cold Pizza,” has been ridiculed by critics as lightweight stuff.
   But do viewers care?
   It appears not at all.
   ESPN just ended its most-watched third quarter ever. And record-setting viewership for the baseball postseason helped ESPN and ESPN2 to their most-watched month ever in October.
   ESPN became one of the very few networks to record growth among men 18-34 this fall, with its total-day average rising 25 percent to a 1.0 rating in October.
   The network’s average total-day household viewership jumped 38 percent from October 2002 to 927,000 this year. ESPN2 was up 55 percent to 263,000.
   In primetime ESPN’s household viewership rose 37 percent to 2.023 million this year while ESPN2 was up 48 percent to 547,000.
   Fall is always the strongest time for the all-sports network because that’s when its highest-rated show, “Sunday Night Football,” airs. Combine that with the return of postseason baseball, which last year was relegated to ABC Family, and it’s not hard to see where the rating increases came from.
   Baseball proved especially potent for usually low-rated ESPN2, which averaged a 3.0 rating for four division series games. The four games were the most-watched programs in the network's 10-year history.
   October’s “SNF” broadcasts were up 21 percent over last year while “NFL Countdown,” which airs before “SNF,” was up 22 percent among households in October.
   Judging by the success of “I Love the ‘80s Strikes Back,” it shouldn’t be too long until “I Love the ‘90s” debuts on VH1. The third installment of the network’s pop culture amalgam boosted viewership significantly among 18-49s and 18-34s last week, especially women.
   VH1’s primetime average viewership was up 162 percent among women 18-49, with two episodes of “’80s” airing each weeknight. Among women 18-34 it was up 224 percent year to year.
   Six episodes of “’80s” made the 18-34 top 50 cable shows last week. Overall VH1’s primetime viewership rose 211 percent among 18-34s versus last year.
   The premiere of Comedy Central’s new “Kid Notorious,” a cartoon based on “Kid Stays in the Picture’s” Robert Evans, may have been a little too high-minded for the “South Park” audience.
  The gross-out lead-in snagged a decent audience for its second half of the season return. But “Kid” retained only 53 percent of “South Park’s” audience among 18-34s. The debuts of “South Park” lead-outs “Chappelle’s Show” and “Reno 911!” both did better in the same spot earlier this year.
   FX’s “Nip/Tuck” ended the season as the most-watched new cable show among 18-49s and 25-54s with last week’s finale. The show averaged 2.2 million in both demographics, lifting it past MTV’s “Newlyweds” among 18-49s.
   The finale of the latter boosted its season average to 2.01 million among 18-49s.