According to M&M in NY, last night's Rockies NL clinching victory scored a 2.2 in the ratings. The previous record was held by last year's NLCS game between the Mets and Cardinals which scored a then record low...wait for it...4.4. Wow. People wonder why ESPN, Fox, etc. always talk about Red Sox / Yankees? There's your answer. Nobody cares NATIONALLY about teams like the Rockies, DBacks, etc. That's what local papers are for.
Yeah I agree with everything your saying. I really didn't care for a Rockies/Dback series. The Red Sox/Indians is much more interesting.
I didn't watch it, but I wonder if it matters that it was on TBS, went head to head with Monday Night Football, and also the other MLB playoff game on FOX. And you need a link.
To make that number relevant, you need to compare how many people nationally have TBS vs. how many people nationally have FOX. I'll give you a hint: it's a whole lot less.
It was a radio broadcast. I'd link you but I don't know how. Mike and the Maddog is a radio program that I'm sure you can find somewhere online. The Yankees/Indians series on TBS didn't have this problem.
The switch from network to cable doesn't account for that big of a ratings fall off. Nor does the game time. I'm not sure why people avoid the reality that baseball is such a region centric sport, save for a few teams, that national ratings for games are not going to be that high when they don't feature nationally prominent teams.
No sh*t the game had crappy ratings. It started at 10:00 Eastern time! I hear Selig has David Stern on the phone for some advice on "persuading" the umps to make a few calls in Boston's favor in the ALCS...
LOL. Move a game from 7:30 Eastern on network television to 10:00 Eastern on cable television, and you're saying that shouldn't account for a huge drop in ratings? It's common sense.
I'm not saying it didn't impact the ratings, of course it did. But the ratings have been bad all series. The reason they are bad is because America doesn't care about the two teams playing.
Obviously FOX reaches more homes. But TBS also reaches less home than ESPN, FX, and FOX Family, all of which I believe have been the cable channels to broadcast playoff games in recent years. How did the DBacks and Rockies compare when all the games were on TBS before FOX started showing their slate?
I have no doubt there's less interest in this series than the Indians/Red Sox series. No doubt at all. But again...we're talking about 10 p.m. Eastern time on TBS. Folks, ratings are gonna suck no matter what you put on. Had they done that to the Red Sox series, I'm guessing their 4.4 would be down to at least 3.0.
TBS ratings were higher across the board over last year's games on both FOX and ESPN during the first round. On cable. The opening game between the two teams, which happened to be in primetime, was the least watched LCS game ever at 3.6 before this one last night. Additionally, my first number was wrong. The record low prior to this series was 4.9, not 4.4.
The game didn't REALLY start until about 10:30 Eastern last night. We were watching WWE, and my friend flipped it to TBS around 9:45 Central, and the game was in the bottom of the first...
I've already pointed out their primetime game in game 1 was also awful. Last night's start time hurt them, but the biggest problem with their ratings are the two teams playing.
It's also worth pointing out that both of these teams have very small fan bases. Neither was in existence prior to 1993, and the Diamondbacks struggled to even sell out their games (walkup tickets available on gameday). It's a very sweeping and overly broad generalization to assume that what's true about these particular teams (both recent expansion) applies to every team that's not the Red Sox, Yankees or Mets.
You are right. I did overgeneralize. But my overall point is sound. Baseball is a region-centric sport. There are teams like the Yankees, Philly, Boston, the Cubs, and maybe 2-3 more with a national fan base big enough to draw big ratings.
the scheduling has a lot to do with that. hard to get decent ratings when rule out more than half. the teams may have something to do, but hell, i watched it jus because the rockies are a great story. The freaking game ended at what? 1:30...
The NBA playoffs which have been at "record lows" and are on cable as well have still been atleast two times as high as these ratings with small market teams
