Fox's coverage of last night's NLCS Game Two, featuring
Mets-Cardinals, earned an 8.4/14 overnight Nielsen rating,
down 29% from last year's comparable Red Sox-Yankees ALCS
Game Two, which earned an 11.9/19 (Fox). Fox's coverage of
Wednesday's NLCS Game One averaged a 6.8/11 national rating
and a 3.6/10 in adults 18-49 -- "well behind last year's
comparable ALCS opener on Fox (10.8/19, 5.5/16) and likely
the lowest-rated LCS opener ever in primetime" (DAILY
VARIETY, 10/13). Fox Sports VP/Media Relations Lou
D'Ermilio, when asked if Fox execs are "worried" about the
ratings: "Absolutely not. ... We paid a fair price for a
product that gives us a promotional platform to launch
prime-time shows. It's way too early to judge a contract
that hasn't even started on one week's worth of playoff
coverage, given the unusual set of circumstances." In
Boston, Howard Manly notes, "At an estimated $6 million per
playoff game under the new contract, Fox must expect to lose
at least half of that per game." Manly: "Next year it will
be worse. With all the games on Fox, rival networks will
launch season premieres against the games" (BOSTON GLOBE,
10/13). Fox Sports Exec Producer Ed Goren: "There's a new
Olympic sport. It's ratings bashing. This is a one-year
scenario in which the Olympics pushed back the premieres to
the playoffs. It's a short-term issue. The bottom line is
over the last four years baseball has been the No. 1 sport
in postseason ratings and demographics outside of the NFL.
And after the World Series it will be again" (USA TODAY,
10/13). NBC Sports Chair Dick Ebersol, on a possible Subway
Series: "From a ratings standpoint, it's always better to
have two parts of the country involved. There's no
automatic ratings glory in New York. The best thing in the
whole world is called Game 6 or Game 7" (USA TODAY, 10/13).
RATINGS REAX: In Atlanta, Prentis Rogers writes, "To no
one's surprise, Fox is calling this nosedive 'an
aberration.' However, before dismissing the claim as merely
standing by your company, some of the reasons are not
without validity. ... [But] no matter how valid the reasons,
no network nor its advertisers can brush off a product that
loses up to a fourth of its audience from the previous year,
which makes the matchup for Fox in the upcoming World Series
all the more intriguing" (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 10/13).
TAKING A DIVE IN CANADA: In Toronto, Chris Zelkovich:
"If the folks at [MLB] aren't worried about the future of
their sport, they should be," as MLB playoff ratings in
Canada are "downright hideous." The 15 division series
games aired on Headlines Sports averaged 91,400 viewers, 70%
lower than TSN averaged last season (TORONTO STAR, 10/13).
CUP OF JOE DURING MLB PLAYOFFS: In L.A., Tom Hoffarth
writes the "dry sense of humor and understated knowledge" of
Fox play-by-play announcer Joe Buck as he "trades
information with analyst Tim McCarver is a nice change from
the anything-you-know-I-know-more, where-does-this-fit-into-
the-context-of-baseball-history-relationship that [NBC's
Bob] Costas seems to have with Joe Morgan" (L.A. DAILY NEWS,
10/13). In N.Y., Phil Mushnick writes Buck "tries too hard
and too often to be too cute. Forced irreverence, even from
Buck's laid-back position, is nonetheless forced, thus
generally not amusing. Buck's good enough and clever enough
to succeed naturally" (N.Y. POST, 10/13).
CRITICS' CORNER: In Houston, David Barron writes, "One
reason ratings are down is the games last so long. ... [And]
one reason games are so long is the networks and their local
affiliates are packing more and more advertisements between
innings so they can recoup their investment. The reason
they need more ads to recoup their investment, of course, is
ratings are down" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 10/13). In Seattle,
John Levesque writes a "good supply of ear wax ... should be
sufficient to blunt Fox's autumnal assault unless some
whizbang geek in their Department of Special Effects and
Useless Graphical Gewgaws gets a software upgrade for
Christmas." Levesque: "This attack on our auditory nerves
is nothing new. ... Fox's NLCS coverage doesn't build to a
crescendo, it begins with one. ... Conversely, NBC's
coverage of the ALCS is like a sedative. I've been to
livelier funerals" (SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, 10/13).
WHAT ABOUT BOB? In Boston, Jim Baker questions what NBC
Costas will do now that NBC is in its final year of its MLB
TV rights contract. Baker writes: "Costas spoke of no plans
beyond his coming HBO show, but might he go to Fox for
baseball or call a team's games -- his hometown Cards or
even the Red Sox?" (BOSTON HERALD, 10/13).
