Comments on: Yankees-Phillies World Series: How High Will The Ratings Go?

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:31:53 +0000

romo, 2007′s 4 game series averaged 17 million with a somewhat worse matchup. The 2003 4 game series averaged only 20 million with the Yankees. To those numbers I applied a general “everything on broadcast is down every year” factor which turned out to be too big.

By: romo

romo — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:25:42 +0000

Bill how can have guessed only 17m ?
Last nite was against reruns + sunday with favres leadin + 2 big markets.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:16:38 +0000

19.5 million for game one was more than I expected. My guess of 17 million in a 4 game series was *way* too low.

20 million seems the floor for a very short series now, and a long series has a chance at topping the 2004 series average.

By: Gleebo

Gleebo — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:15:14 +0000

I don’t think it’s crazy to say that if the Cubs ever make the WS that the ratings they are getting now would more than double. Now imagine a Cubs/Yankees or Red Sox World Series. If both teams had not collapsed in their league championship the 2003 World Series with Bos/Chc would have been the biggest sporting event of our time. That series would still be a big one now but since the Sox broke their curse and won it(2004 and again in 2007) it wouldn’t have quite the same level of excitement. That would have been pandemonium in Chicago and Boston.

By: NBCSeeUs1978

NBCSeeUs1978 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:49:37 +0000

If the Chicago Cubs are ever in a World Series then it would be the highest rated World Series of all-time or at least 30 million viewers.

Imagine a Game 7 at Wrigley for the World Series and a close game. That would break some records.

By: romo

romo — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:51:56 +0000

Chicago bumped the astros series #s.

By: R.G

R.G — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:15:36 +0000

I’m surprised my hometown Astros when they were in the World Series 4 years ago, got 17 million average. I though they would get only 8 million with them in.

By: mike

mike — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:34:12 +0000

Phillies in 6.

By: Brando

Brando — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:24:06 +0000

Yanks in 6. Next Wed: WS Ring #27. It’s destiNY. You don’t bet against it.

By: Alex S.

Alex S. — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:08:43 +0000

Go Yankees!

I pray for a 4 game sweep!

By: sdf

sdf — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:08:38 +0000

I’m actually hoping they don’t make it to seven games, because I think that would mean “Bones” gets preempted on November 5th.

By: Joe D

Joe D — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:38:11 +0000

Looking at your chart FOX would have been even happier had it been a Dodgers-Yankees series. It will be interesting how ratings are east coast vs west coast as our start times are 5pm.

By: romo

romo — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:23:44 +0000

To cp:
if u think that game 1 will be higher than sundays game after favre/pack….then u might be hangin with adam too much….lol.

By: romo

romo — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:21:33 +0000

To adam:
if u think this will be less viewers than the last few years u are totally lost.

By: HotPocket

HotPocket — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:09:04 +0000

Look at the different matchups back in the 70s and 80s. It seems like ever since the Strike the sport has struggled to pull in huge numbers like the NFL Playoffs. The sport needs to get a salary cap and have more parity. Its important that every team.

Its just not a balanced sport right now and that’s why FOX is so dependent on the Yanks and Red Sox. The other major sports don’t really have this problem as they rely on their biggest teams for a solid rating. The NHL is a different story b/c that league is trying to rebuild itself.

By: unknown

unknown — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:55:31 +0000

Wow, I knew there where WS sweeps these past few years but I didnt know the last 6 game series was with the Yankees and THE WS CHAMPS FLORIDA MARLINS!!! I saw all of them ^_^. So proud of the Marlins that Year lol.

Anyway, FOX should be really happy with baseball this year. the Angles/Yankees series where incredible and got them major ratings and im pretty positive people will be watching the WS this year.

By: dumont

dumont — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:20:22 +0000

I have a sense that this World Series will go down to seven games and it will average over 30 million viewers. FOX will crush the other nets in the November Sweep, and go on to win the 2009-10 season with their biggest margin of victory yet.

By: Buzz

Buzz — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:52:53 +0000

Why is viewership going down, let’s see the first round was on cable, the NLCS was on cable. In these rough times people are dropping cable/satellite to save money so you can’t watch them.
That why the NFL is the #1 sport in the USA, almost all of the games are shown on over the air channels, and if you team is on cable, if it’s soldout, a local channel shows the game, can’t say that about any sport other than the NFL

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:14:20 +0000

Yankees outpsend all other teams. They represent everything thats wrong with baseball. They are bad for baseball. Phillies are a big spenidng team as well but not to the extent of the yankees. Go phillies.

Screw the yankees the world does not revolve around new york even if espn makes you think so!!

By: gbd

gbd — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:13:38 +0000

I’ll be anxious to see the local NY/Philly ratings vs the National numbers as well.

By: jim

jim — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:07:41 +0000

Lets go Yankees! Yanks in six!

By: CP

CP — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:31:54 +0000

The first game will probably get the highest rating with C.C. vs. Cliff Lee. I hope the yankees sweep, but that’s just me.

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:16:27 +0000

Given the trajectory of the year-to-year graph you showed, shouldn’t the question be how LOW will the ratings go?

By: E

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:04:58 +0000

I am glad that Fox is starting the games just before 8pm.
However, I think they are making a big mistake by starting the Sunday game at 8:20.
They will have a HUGE audience (possibly the biggest regular season NFL audience in years) for the GB-Minnesota game.
If it doesn’t go into overtime, the GB-Minnesota game should end by 7:30 ET. FOx would be wise to start the WS game on Sunday by no later than 8pm to hold that audience. With the post game NFL, and pre game World Series that follows, they are going to lose alot of viewers.
Not a smart move by FOx.
Also, for the fans, I think Fox should start the Saturday Night games earlier. I know they will never have an afternoon game, but, it would be good to start the Saturday game at 7pm. I do not think it would effect the ratings on a Saturday.

By: J.R. Herbaugh

J.R. Herbaugh — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:35:12 +0000

Both teams are very strong. Six.

By: Dingo

Dingo — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:52:27 +0000

Starts tonight.

By: Charles

Charles — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:46:16 +0000

When is the world series?