Fox earned a 14.3/25 preliminary overnight rating for
Game One of the Yankees-Padres World Series, up 3% from the
14.0/25 NBC received for Game One of the '97 Indians-Marlins
World Series. Game Two drew an overnight rating of 14.4/22,
down 12% from last year's Game Two, which drew a 16.3/25
(THE DAILY). DAILY VARIETY's Tom Bierbaum calls Game One's
slight increase "a relatively unimpressive gain," given the
"improved" matchup (DAILY VARIETY, 10/19).
REVIEWS: USA TODAY's Rudy Martzke writes that during
the bottom of the 7th inning in Game One, in which the
Yankees scored seven runs, "Fox's baseball crew scored a
perfect 10.0." Martzke gives Fox an "A-" for its weekend
coverage (USA TODAY, 10/19). In Toronto, Rob Longley writes
that Fox's "great camera work, good commentary from Joe Buck
and finally a few quiet moments from Tim McCarver made for a
solid show" (TORONTO SUN, 10/19). But in Toronto, Chris
Zelkovich writes, "There simply has been too much chatter.
McCarver and [Bob] Brenly haven't been able to resist the
natural urge to throw in their two cents' worth. ... The
blabfest is threatening to detract from Fox's usual great
job of presenting the images, with its super slo-mo
isolation cameras and game sounds" (TORONTO STAR, 10/19).
SHAMELESS SIGHTINGS? Fox continued to showed several of
its primetime stars during the games, including Luke Perry
of "Beverly Hills 90210," Kelly Rutherford and Rob Estes of
"Melrose Place" and Calista Flockhart of "Ally McBeal" (THE
DAILY). Flockhart wore Yankees P David Wells' $35,000 Babe
Ruth cap (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 10/19). Fox's Joe Buck, after
showing the "Melrose Place" stars: "Tomorrow night they'll
jump into action when Fox raises the hemline for Mini-skirt
Monday" (THE DAILY). In N.Y., Phil Mushnick: "When Fox
shoots one of its primetime stars seated at a World Series
game, does the network think that viewers sit there and say,
'Yeah, I gotta start watching that show,' or do they say to
themselves, 'There's another ticket that should've been in
the hands of a loyal baseball fan?'" (N.Y. POST, 10/19).
SPOT REMOVER: Fox President/Ad Sales Jon Nesvig said
that "a few commercial spots were available in the first
four or five games and more in the last two" if necessary.
Nesvig: "We are basically done." Nesvig declined comment on
the price of World Series ads, but two ad buyers put a 30-
second spot at $250,000 to $300,000, "roughly the same as
NBC got last year" (Skip Wollenberg, AP, 10/17).
