NEW YORK -- A World Series to remember for the St. Louis
Cardinals was one to forget when it came to television ratings.
The Cardinals' five-game victory over the Detroit Tigers
averaged a record-low 10.1 television rating and 17 share, Fox said
Sunday. This year's rating dropped 9 percent from the previous
bottom, an 11.1 for a four-game sweep by the Chicago White Sox over
the Houston Astros last year.
What made the low rating more remarkable was that this year's
Series went five games and was not a sweep. St. Louis' 4-2 victory
in Friday night's finale got a 10.3/18 in figures compiled by
Nielsen Media Research, just above the record low for a Game 5, a
10.0/17 for the San Francisco Giants' 16-4 rout of the Anaheim
Angels in 2002.
Games 1 (8.0), 3 (10.2) and 4 (10.4) also were record lows for
their games, and Game 2 (11.6) was above the low of 11.1, set last
year.
Still, in an era of declining network ratings because of the
spread of cable television, Fox was pleased it won prime time in
all five nights among viewers 18-49. In an effort to avoid
low-rated Saturday night games, the World Series will start on a
Tuesday next year, the first season of baseball's new TV contracts.
"We are in the business of winning nights and the World Series
consistently helps Fox achieve this goal," Fox Sports president Ed
Goren said. "There is also no questioning the tremendous yearly
promotional power that one of the worlds greatest sporting events
and its 15.8 million viewers per night provides the network."
The Pittsburgh Steelers' 21-10 victory over the Seattle Seahawks
in February's Super Bowl got a 41.6/62 on ABC, while the Miami
Heat's six-game win over the Dallas Mavericks in June's NBA Finals
averaged an 8.5 rating on ABC. NBC televised the final five games
of the Carolina Hurricanes '4-3 victory over the Edmonton Oilers in
June's Stanley Cup finals, averaging a 2.3/4.
In St. Louis, World Series Game 5 got a 51.7/71 and the Series
averaged a 48.9/65. Detroit got a 34.3/50 for Game 5 and averaged
36.9/53 for the Series.
The national rating is the percentage of U.S. television
households tuned to a program, and each point represents 1,114,000
homes. The share is the percentage of households watching a
broadcast among those homes with televisions in use at the time.