Astros Set Record Low Viewership - 915 People watch game

I used to be a die hard, now I hardly know their names....

DD

 

So...it got worse.

[rquoter]According to Nielsen, nobody watched Astros-Indians game Sunday

Even though the Texans lost Sunday to the Ravens, from the perspective of the Nielsen Co., they pitched a shutout in front of Houston television viewers.

The Texans’ loss at Baltimore was seen by an average audience of 23 percent of Houston’s 2.28 million TV households, or about 526,553 households, on KHOU (Channel 11).

And the Astros’ noon game at Cleveland on Comcast SportsNet Houston?

0.00 Nielsen rating, with an average audience of zero households.

For the first time in the Astros’ history as one of the first Major League Baseball teams to distribute their games over cable, they played a game Sunday afternoon and, according to Nielsen, nobody watched.

There are a couple of asterisks involved here, of course. For one thing, Nielsen persists with the statistically supportable but still head-shaking concept that it can measure what millions of television viewers are watching by monitoring the behavior of hundreds.

On Sunday, for example, Nielsen had reports from 581 meters in Greater Houston. In any given quarter-hour between noon and 3 p.m. Sunday, anywhere from 47.6 to 52.6 percent of those meters (roughly 270 to 300) were in use by viewers watching television.

But none of them – not a single, solitary Nielsen household – tuned in to watch the Astros lose to the Indians for their ninth consecutive loss and their 105th defeat of the year.

NASCAR’s Sprint Cup race from New Hampshire had a 1.3 Nielsen rating on Sunday afternoon in Houston. A “Law and Order” rerun on TNT between noon and 1 p.m. had a 0.9 rating. NFL Network’s screen of NFL score updates had a 0.16 rating. Formula One racing from Singapore had a 0.14 rating on NBC Sports Network. A “21 Jump Street” rerun on Channel 57 from 1 to 2 p.m. had a 0.04 rating. A “Cosby Show” rerun from 2 to 2:30 p.m. on Channel 39 had a 0.5 rating. CNN and Fox News Channel combined for a 0.3 rating from 1 to 2 p.m.

But Astros-Indians? According to Nielsen, the game drew hash marks, which is the Nielsen ratings symbol for a program that does not draw a measurable audience.

Doubtless some people did tune in somewhere. I suspected that Sunday’s game would draw little or no audience against the Texans, so I had CSN Houston on one of my deskside TVs just to ensure that it was, in fact, broadcast. It was, by the way.

Several Houston sports bars, including Griff’s and Nick’s Place, also had the game available to customers Sunday afternoon, although the larger TVs in both locations were devoted to the Texans-Ravens and Rams-Cowboys games. Other sports bars, including Big Woodrow’s and Lucky’s Pub, said they generally show nighttime Astros games but did not show the Sunday afternoon game because of customer demand for NFL games. Sports bars, however, are not monitored by Nielsen, so their audiences aren’t included in the company’s ratings totals.

Back on Jan. 4, 1983, when Home Sports Entertainment came to life as Houston’s first regional sports network, Bill Worrell walked up to his boss, Dick Barron (no relation to me, by the way), and asked him, “So how many people are going to see this?” Barron replied, “My wife and seven others.”

According to Nielsen, that’s eight more people than watched the Astros on Sunday. It is, at least from a ratings standpoint, the lowest point in the long, proud history of Houston sports television. It can’t get any lower.[/rquoter]

 

I imagine that this day in age you would get laughed at for asking a sports bar to turn on the astros on a saturday or sunday.

 

We'll probably never know.

 

Crane thought he could ignore the fans for a few years. We'll see how long it takes them to come back

 

take it a step further, I bet more mofos viewed the rangers in houston.
Props to all my true astros fans that battlefight in the game day threads. I can't view because of comca$t but I always listen to the games on the radio like it's 1922.

 

Wonder what the minor league playoffs would have drawn had they been televised here?

Pretty clear that that's where the priority is... from the top of the organization down.

 

Maybe time to change up the Neilsen, or go with other more accurate indicators. I'm sure there's a kid or 2 oblivious to records and front office decisions that tuned in somewhere. They dont factor much into ads demographic, but its more than zero percent.

 

Sure... but the other shows they mention there that outdrew the Astros are measured by the same standards.

Cosby show rerun. TNT drama. F1 racing.

It does make for a better headline to have a 0.00 rating... and ratings have been flawed for years... but the reality is that if the Astros game was simply mysteriously pre-empted by paid advertising, very few would call and complain.

 

I know its hard to believe for some people ITT but if us non comcast subscribers could you know actually watch the games it would help the ratings.

I find links online for some games and will watch the Rangers games on FSN the next three days.

Its not just because they suck no one watches. I would rather watch the stros suck than watch a lot of stuff on tv, its just I and others just dont have that option.

 

I'm with you. The prospect of watching the horrible Astros possibly do serious damage to the rangers playoff prospects will have me watching FSN the next few days. And I pro all would've watched at least some yesterday if I had access to the channel. But, I don't. And apparently the people that do are more interested in the reruns of a show that's been off the air for 20 years than watching the Astros. I can't imagine the front office sits back and thinks there's nothing wrong with that. I'd love to hear a quote from Crane or Ryan on the big fat 0 they put up yesterday.

 

Lol. I was watching the WNBA game.

 

No doubt about it, the ratings numbers do still indicate things. There's probably a fixed amount of (old) people that are watching Cosby Show reruns just incidentally, regardless of what else is going on. You figure something like Astros would have some of that floor level number even incidentally.

So itd have to indicate something made them DELIBERATELY NOT want to tune. Or Astros are so shoved back in peoples mind into apathy land that a Hogan Family rerun offers more on the moment viewing interest.

And of course Astros arent even available to the full Houston market, plus no one really cares about American League, just too much substandard things going on


(Was saying to adjust Neilsen in general for all shows really but thats another thread)

 

There was, the Texans game was on.

 

915 households couldn't find the remote.

 

those 915 households werent really house holds...it was bars putting the game on a screen...so that surely accounts for a lot of the results...I can guarantee that no one was even watching...lol...DisASStros...

 

Nielsen doesn't track bars.

 

Two things I never did that every kid I grew up with did were hunting and baseball: so I don't know squat about the latter. But I do assume a team out of the playoffs, late in the season and at the beginning of the football and new TV seasons isn't going to get any viewers.

 

lol...then in that case...who were the 915 who forgot to change the TV station

 

it's like chicken an egg. who plays well when CSN is blocked in the city.

karma is a *****.