I don't even think MLB expected this year's World Series to be the lowest ever rated on TV! Most of the articles I read said they expected the ratings to average around 10.5.According to Awful Announcing, the final TV rating will be around 9.5 which is .5 less than the lowest rated ever. The 2006 World Series received a 10.0.
Wednesday night's game 5 version 2.o received a 13.5 TV rating. Did baseball learn anything about having games completed before 11:30 EDT?
I should clarify why I'm posting this data. It's not to say, "see, I told you it would be bad." I'm trying to make a point that baseball games needed to be started earlier so more people can watch. When the greatest team story in baseball (Tampa's worst-to-first turnaround) can't capture the nation's attention, then something must be done.
I think the biggest problem with the World Series ratings may be Tim McCarver and Joe Buck. Can you find one person that enjoys listening to them?
ReplyDeleteThe 8:37 first pitch times stink - in the Eastern Time Zone, anyway. I'd really like to ditch the half-hour useless pre-game show and start the games at 8:07.
But I don't see Monday Night Football having any ratings problems, and those games run just as late (or later) than most of the World Series did.