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Great Series, Lousy Ratings
ShowBIZData.com ^
| 10/28/2002
Posted on 10/28/2002 12:25:19 PM PST by GeneD
Although it produced one of the most exciting post-season baseball contests ever, the 2002 World Series failed to attract big audiences -- even for the final two games, according to preliminary Nielsen results. Saturday's 13.5 rating and 22 share for Game 6 of the Anaheim Angels/San Francisco Giants series produced a 13.5 rating and a 22 share -- down 11 percent from the sixth game of the 2001 series between the New York Yankees and the Arizona Diamondbacks. Sunday's concluding game, which averaged a 16.5/23, was 27 percent below the seventh game of last year's series. Ratings for both games, however, were overwhelmingly higher than those for the competing programs.
TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: baseball; foxsports; mlb; newscorporation
My final update on the
resurging interest in Major League Baseball!
According to Broadcasting and Cable, Rupert was offering "makegoods," meaning he was giving free airtime to sponsors because of the lousy ratings. Way to go Rupe!
Wonder if the SeligSign (i.e., the sponsored backstop) and the FOXBAR (the scoreboard which takes up half the screen) had anything to do with it? Nah, the viewers were stupid as usual.
1
posted on
10/28/2002 12:25:19 PM PST
by
GeneD
To: GeneD
It was a west coast series. Not everyone wanted to stay up that late.
2
posted on
10/28/2002 12:29:01 PM PST
by
LarryM
To: GeneD
Well, what do they expect when the games drag on well past midnight? I also find Fox's presentation so 'busy' with the graphics and statistics and on-line polls. Not to mention stuffing of the stands with Fox 'stars' from TV. Sheesh. Even as a diehard fan I find it hard to watch, much preferring to listen to Jon Miller on the radio.
3
posted on
10/28/2002 12:32:15 PM PST
by
Rummyfan
To: GeneD
The left coast truly is its own world, the east coast doesn't give a damn about west coast series.. .never have and never will, no matter how darling they may be. Only people around here talking about the series were the sportscasters/writers, people on the street could care less.
To: GeneD
Maybe ratings would have been higher if..
Tens of thousands of protesters marched down Market Street in San Francisco on Saturday afternoon in a major demonstration against President Bush's policy on Iraq -- the largest peace rally police and protesters could remember since the Vietnam War. Police estimated the throng at 42,000, while protesters said more than 80, 000 people joined the 11 a.m. march, which began at Justin Herman Plaza and ended with a rally at the Civic Center
I could give a damn about baseball let alone two teams from Californication...
To: GeneD
I've been a Yankees fan since I was a little boy. If they aren't in it, I don't much care who wins. Luckily the Yankees have been in a few world series. But I could care less which left-coast team beats which left-coast team.
6
posted on
10/28/2002 2:12:17 PM PST
by
Cicero
To: Cicero
Wasn't the Yankees-Mets World Series the lowest rated WS ever?
7
posted on
10/28/2002 2:14:17 PM PST
by
dfwgator
To: GeneD
The minute the players set their strike date, baseball completely lost me.
The problem is the deal they reached doesn't begin to solve the money issue. Baseball will get me back when the get equitable revenue sharing and or a salary cap AND they get meaningful drug testing so we know league MVPs aren't pumped up an steroids.
To: GeneD
I've seen these stories about the "ratings" of the World Series television broadcasts posted on Drudge and elsewhere all the time, and I always think:
Why the heck am I supposed to care about the "ratings" of these nail-biting baseball games? Does that make them less interesting somehow? Did that make Game 6 less heartbreaking (to this Giants fan ;)?
I really don't understand why the television broadcast "ratings" are considered newsworthy for the general public.
It is my (completely subjective) perception that there is an antipathy to the sport of baseball among media elites, and that they want to hype up any story which makes baseball seem "declining". Hence we get these (completely irrelevant) stories about "ratings". I can think of no other explanation.
To: HamiltonJay
the east coast doesn't give a damn about west coast series.. .never have and never will, no matter how darling they may be. Who cares?
Only people around here talking about the series were the sportscasters/writers, people on the street could care less.
Who cares?
Seriously, what gave you the impression that it was somehow important to Giants and/or Angels fans whether Yankee, Boston, or Met fans were watching this World Series? What made you mistakenly think that the opinion of such people was important to the quality, dramatic interest, or importance of these seven Series games? I'd really like to know. It puzzles me.
To: rohry; Dukie; arete
Bob predicted this.
11
posted on
10/28/2002 9:39:07 PM PST
by
Tauzero
To: GeneD
The dumbasses really missed some good baseball then!
To: Dr. Frank
Maybe you missed the title of this thread, and the following article, that it was a great series with lousy ratings.... my comments were about why there were lousy ratings, and had nothing to do with the quality of play.
To: HamiltonJay
Maybe you missed the title of this thread, and the following article, that it was a great series with lousy ratings.... I didn't miss this at all. I questioned why it was newsworthy. See my Post #9, in which I ask a similar question to that I asked of you: Why the heck am I (or anyone else aside from TV execs) supposed to care about the "ratings" of some baseball games?
(I have the same problem every time I see movie box-office returns presented to us as if they're news. What is newsworthy about these numbers? I just don't get it.)
my comments were about why there were lousy ratings,
Yes, and your explanation was quite plausible indeed. But my response was to wonder why you think anyone cares. Still wondering....
To: Dr. Frank
Not here to debate why someone cares or not, there are people who care about things, and people who don't... not my place to judge.
To: HamiltonJay
I know nothing about baseball but from this perspective I have a unique take. Once I heard it was an all California world series, I immediately decided to ignore it. Personally, California is just too radical a place for all of us in fly-over states. They don't represent conservative values and I don't want to have anything to do with the left coast. Just my sorry opinion.
To: dfwgator; The KG9 Kid
Wasn't the Yankees-Mets World Series the lowest rated WS ever?The recent Cally series broke all records for least viewed.
(Sorry, picture-in-picture college football trumps EVERYTHING...)
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