Through the first two World Series games, overnight
ratings are down 6% from last year, which was the third-
lowest Series ever, according to Steve Zipay of NEWSDAY.
NBC's two-day average for Indians-Marlins was 15.2, compared
to Fox's 16.1 for the first two games of Yankees-Braves in
'96 (NEWSDAY, 10/21). Final national ratings for Games One
and Two will be released today (THE DAILY). But in N.Y.,
Richard Sandomir writes that, "[E]ven if the World Series
isn't the ratings titan it was a decade or two ago, it is
still better than what NBC's Tuesday and Wednesday lineups
yield" (N.Y. TIMES, 10/21). USA TODAY's Rudy Martzke notes
that Thursday's Game Five "will bring in an extra" $13.5M in
revenue for NBC. With a fifth game, NBC, which is paying
$80M per year for TV rights, "begins to turn a profit on the
Series" (USA TODAY, 10/21).
HERE, HERE: NBC Sports President Dick Ebersol, on the
slow pace of play of MLB games: "Somebody's got to grab the
umpires by the scruff of the neck and tell them to call the
strike zone the way they used to. And there's no reason for
all this walking around and doing all this stuff between
pitches" (Ray McNulty, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, 10/21).
Ebersol added he was "sick of hearing" network commercials
being blamed for the game's length (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 10/21).
