World Series Posts Record Low Ratings

GForce · 10-30-2006, 12:24 AM

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playof...ory?id=2642964

Quote:

The Cardinals' five-game victory over the Detroit Tigers averaged a record-low 10.1 television rating and 17 share, Fox said Sunday. This year's rating dropped 9 percent from the previous bottom, an 11.1 for a four-game sweep by the Chicago White Sox over the Houston Astros last year.

GH

canadiancreed · 10-30-2006, 12:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GForce

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playof...ory?id=2642964

GH

From what I've read the ratings have been stedially getting worse since either 1993 or 1995

Raderick · 10-30-2006, 12:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GForce

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playof...ory?id=2642964

GH

Very sad.

The Professor · 10-30-2006, 12:42 AM

Quote:

"We are in the business of winning nights and the World Series consistently helps Fox achieve this goal," Fox Sports president Ed Goren said. "There is also no questioning the tremendous yearly promotional power that one of the worlds greatest sporting events and its 15.8 million viewers per night provides the network."

Promotions? Really? I didn't notice any.

marc · 10-30-2006, 12:53 AM

For once I agree with Cold Pizza's Skip Clueless. These teams just weren't very exciting. That takes nothing away from either of them and I'm not trying to say they weren't the 2 best teams but as Clueless said, "Albert Pujols is the Tim Duncan of baseball" he's boring and bland. Even Rolen, who is one of my favorite players, is boring.

That combined with the continuing trend of low World Series ratings is why you have a record.

Prodigal Son · 10-30-2006, 01:10 AM

Doesn't look too bad, especially considering alternate viewing options keep going up and up and St. Louis and Detroit aren't major markets. I was actually expecting it to be worse.

I would advise folks not to equate television ratings with an overall measure of the interest-generating ability of any particular series. Long-term, it may be better for baseball to have, say 250,000 Detroit fans become really excited about their team heading into the team's future at the cost of having a million Yankees fans turn the channel away from this particular World Series.

mikev · 10-30-2006, 01:27 AM

If the A's ever make it to the World Series, we will possibly see 7 day games.

Bay Area Bob · 10-30-2006, 01:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikev

If the A's ever make it to the World Series, we will possibly see 7 day games.

11 AM on the West Coast! w00t!!

ctorg · 10-30-2006, 08:17 AM

Sometimes I wonder if the extended playoff structure is partially responsible for this. Maybe people feel like they don't want to commit to watching all those playoff games, or by the time the World Series comes around they're tired of hearing about the baseball playoffs, or whatever.

CONN CHRIS · 10-30-2006, 09:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ctorg

Sometimes I wonder if the extended playoff structure is partially responsible for this. Maybe people feel like they don't want to commit to watching all those playoff games, or by the time the World Series comes around they're tired of hearing about the baseball playoffs, or whatever.

I think this may be a part of it. I am a rabid baseball fan and do not care for the extra level of playoffs (even though my team would have been on the outside without it this year).

After 162 games, putting teams in the playoffs that did not win a division and making the first round only 5 games will more often than not allow a lesser team to slip though. Couple that with the calender and I think the casual or non-rabid fan drops away toward the back end of the playoffs.

Shorten the season by 10 or so games or insert double headers, re-align to four divisions and have two rounds of seven game series in each league.

That or contract, re-align to two divisions and eliminate the wild card.

Gastric ReFlux · 10-30-2006, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CONN CHRIS

I think this may be a part of it. I am a rabid baseball fan and do not care for the extra level of playoffs (even though my team would have been on the outside without it this year).

After 162 games, putting teams in the playoffs that did not win a division and making the first round only 5 games will more often than not allow a lesser team to slip though. Couple that with the calender and I think the casual or non-rabid fan drops away toward the back end of the playoffs.

Shorten the season by 10 or so games or insert double headers, re-align to four divisions and have two rounds of seven game series in each league.

That or contract, re-align to two divisions and eliminate the wild card.

Maybe the biggest factor was they forgot to make a Lasorda commercial exhorting New York fans to get to the TV.

It's probably a variety of factors. The two teams that played in the World Series this year, and sometimes I think the fact that we get so deep into October now, I don't know, last week here in Pennsylvania it didn't feel anything close to what baseball weather should be like. There's something bizarre to me, and awful, when teams are having to play in miserably cold and wet conditions.

Also, by this time in the year, the football seasons are going.

There might be some dissatisfaction that people have towards the Fox broadcasts, too. The endless, endless, over and over, again and again, promotions are awful. Tim McCarver ain't any fun to listen to, and frankly, the games are taking too long to play. I feel a certain amount of consternation knowing that if I watch the game, it'll be a minimum of 3 hours of too long of commercial breaks.

eriqjaffe · 10-30-2006, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by canadiancreed

From what I've read the ratings have been stedially getting worse since either 1993 or 1995

It's not exactly a straight line, but...

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/ws/wstv.shtml

Ratings are down significantly from where they were in the early 90s. Basically, since the inception of the Wild Card.

There is spike whenever the Yankees or Red Sox are playing, with 2000 being an exception, probably because both teams were in one market.

Hell, I'm just glad that the White Sox no longer have the lowest-rated World Series.

abailey3313 · 10-30-2006, 11:20 AM

I think a large part of it is that both teams from the biggest market in baseball, New York, were eliminated, leaving a pissed off fan base. Once the Yankees and the Mets were out, did any New York baseball fan have any real reason to watch the Tigers or the Cardinals? I somehow doubt Yankee fans were glued to their TV sets rooting for the Cardinals simply out of vengeance, and vice versa for Mets fans.

And I think a good case can be made that, yeah, there wasn't much in the way of star power in this series. The biggest name was Albert Pujols... but then who? None of the starting pitchers are established names, likely leaving either Ivan Rodriguez or Scott Rolen as the only guys even casual fans know. No one is going to tune in just to see those players.

Plus, I think the Cardinals taking a lead had something to do with it. People probably had an issue with watching a team that barely finished .500 win a championship.

Green & Gold Heart · 10-30-2006, 11:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marc

For once I agree with Cold Pizza's Skip Clueless. These teams just weren't very exciting. That takes nothing away from either of them and I'm not trying to say they weren't the 2 best teams but as Clueless said, "Albert Pujols is the Tim Duncan of baseball" he's boring and bland. Even Rolen, who is one of my favorite players, is boring.

I didn't hear Skip say this but this is what I've been thinking too. I think going into the playoffs the Cardinals were the most boring team to me. Albert Pujols is great, but yeah, he's really bland. He's a nice guy, is a consistent player, and doesn't go into major slumps that cause his hometown fans to boo him. Chris Carpenter is one of the best pitchers in MLB but he is not exciting. I'm not sure I'd be able to pick him out of a photo lineup. The most exicting things about the Cardinals were Scott Spezio's red goatee, David Eckstein being pesky, and Ronnie Belliard's afro in Game 1.

edog23 · 10-30-2006, 11:40 AM

I for one, watched all the games because I'm a baseball fan. Living on the west coast, it's a lot easier to sit down and watch them when the start at 5:00 over here. However, I'd love to see a return to day games instead "primetime" starts on weekends. Maybe even start the games at 7:00 on the east coast instead of 8. Also, dump Fox and have ESPN do all the games or a different network. I know that watching all the stupid promos and the two knuckleheads doing the broadcasts makes my stomach turn. I'm a purists I guess, I just want to watch a game and feel good about it even if my team is either in it or not.

Green & Gold Heart · 10-30-2006, 11:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by abailey3313

Plus, I think the Cardinals taking a lead had something to do with it. People probably had an issue with watching a team that barely finished .500 win a championship.

I'm not sure I buy this. Doesn't America love an underdog story? I think it's because they didn't have any charismatic players to pull into their underdog story to make people want to root for it.

Tribe Fan 24 · 10-30-2006, 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gastric ReFlux

There might be some dissatisfaction that people have towards the Fox broadcasts, too. The endless, endless, over and over, again and again, promotions are awful. Tim McCarver ain't any fun to listen to, and frankly, the games are taking too long to play. I feel a certain amount of consternation knowing that if I watch the game, it'll be a minimum of 3 hours of too long of commercial breaks.

I don't know if this is THE reason for some of the bad ratings, but I agree with growing tired of the Fox broadcasts. I swear, does Fox have to put that annoying "SWOOOOOSH" with EVERY ONE of the 4.72 million (mostly) useless promos/graphics they put up. I mean, REALLY!!

Maybe I am just hypersensitive to it, but it is like a sharp stick in the eye (ear) every time I hear that. It is almost like they have tried to make the broadcast sound like you are playing a PS2 or XBox.

Sorry for the rant.....I need coffee.

Kevin

Gastric ReFlux · 10-30-2006, 11:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Green & Gold Heart

I'm not sure I buy this. Doesn't America love an underdog story? I think it's because they didn't have any charismatic players to pull into their underdog story to make people want to root for it.

I don't know if the Cardinals were classic underdogs. They were pretty well anointed as the ones who would dominate the NL and NL Central, but they just kind of stumbled their way in at the end. It wasn't like they had come from nowhere and fought their way into the playoffs.

mikev · 10-30-2006, 11:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Green & Gold Heart

I'm not sure I buy this. Doesn't America love an underdog story? I think it's because they didn't have any charismatic players to pull into their underdog story to make people want to root for it.

Actually I think they did a good job latching on to a certain gritty 5-foot-7 sparkplug who plays his little heart out and runs out grounders.

Sdpm100 · 10-30-2006, 12:13 PM

The "they did" link is broken.

10-30-2006, 12:53 AM	#5
marc Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 7,505	For once I agree with Cold Pizza's Skip Clueless. These teams just weren't very exciting. That takes nothing away from either of them and I'm not trying to say they weren't the 2 best teams but as Clueless said, "Albert Pujols is the Tim Duncan of baseball" he's boring and bland. Even Rolen, who is one of my favorite players, is boring. That combined with the continuing trend of low World Series ratings is why you have a record. __________________

10-30-2006, 01:27 AM	#7
mikev Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Bay Area, CA Posts: 4,014	If the A's ever make it to the World Series, we will possibly see 7 day games. __________________ Global Unified Baseball Association - Vice Commish and Oakland Oaks GM

10-30-2006, 08:17 AM	#9
ctorg Global Moderator Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Queens, NY Posts: 9,848	Sometimes I wonder if the extended playoff structure is partially responsible for this. Maybe people feel like they don't want to commit to watching all those playoff games, or by the time the World Series comes around they're tired of hearing about the baseball playoffs, or whatever. __________________ My music "When the trees blow back and forth, that's what makes the wind." - Steven Wright Fjord emena pancreas thorax fornicate marmalade morpheme proteolysis smaxa cabana offal srue vitriol grope hallelujah lentils

10-30-2006, 11:20 AM	#13
abailey3313 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 3,718	I think a large part of it is that both teams from the biggest market in baseball, New York, were eliminated, leaving a pissed off fan base. Once the Yankees and the Mets were out, did any New York baseball fan have any real reason to watch the Tigers or the Cardinals? I somehow doubt Yankee fans were glued to their TV sets rooting for the Cardinals simply out of vengeance, and vice versa for Mets fans. And I think a good case can be made that, yeah, there wasn't much in the way of star power in this series. The biggest name was Albert Pujols... but then who? None of the starting pitchers are established names, likely leaving either Ivan Rodriguez or Scott Rolen as the only guys even casual fans know. No one is going to tune in just to see those players. Plus, I think the Cardinals taking a lead had something to do with it. People probably had an issue with watching a team that barely finished .500 win a championship. __________________

10-30-2006, 01:10 AM	#6
Prodigal Son All Star Starter Join Date: May 2006 Location: Iahiodo a.k.a. the flyover Posts: 1,635	Doesn't look too bad, especially considering alternate viewing options keep going up and up and St. Louis and Detroit aren't major markets. I was actually expecting it to be worse. I would advise folks not to equate television ratings with an overall measure of the interest-generating ability of any particular series. Long-term, it may be better for baseball to have, say 250,000 Detroit fans become really excited about their team heading into the team's future at the cost of having a million Yankees fans turn the channel away from this particular World Series.

10-30-2006, 11:40 AM	#15
edog23 Major Leagues Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Santa Rosa, CA. Posts: 493	I for one, watched all the games because I'm a baseball fan. Living on the west coast, it's a lot easier to sit down and watch them when the start at 5:00 over here. However, I'd love to see a return to day games instead "primetime" starts on weekends. Maybe even start the games at 7:00 on the east coast instead of 8. Also, dump Fox and have ESPN do all the games or a different network. I know that watching all the stupid promos and the two knuckleheads doing the broadcasts makes my stomach turn. I'm a purists I guess, I just want to watch a game and feel good about it even if my team is either in it or not.

10-30-2006, 12:13 PM	#20
Sdpm100 Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2005 Location: Cheltenham, England Posts: 7,644	The "they did" link is broken.