Fox’ Ratings Rebound A Bit With World Series Game Two

Fox is averaging a 9.8 final Nielsen rating for the first two games of the Cardinals-Tigers World Series, down 5% from the first two games of last year’s White Sox-Astros World Series, the lowest rated World Series ever. Fox’ 8.0/15 for Game One on Saturday was down 15.8% from a 9.5/17 in ’05 and marked the lowest-rated World Series game ever. Game Two on Sunday earned an 11.6/18, up 4.5% from last year’s 11.1/17 (THE DAILY). Fox won primetime on both nights; Saturday “against weak competition,” but Sunday against ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” and a new lineup on CBS. Game Two averaged 18.2 million viewers and a 5.8 rating among adults 18-49, up from 17.2 million viewers and a 5.7 for last year’s Game Two. Fox drew its highest Sunday night rating since the Panthers-Seahawks NFC Championship Game in January (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 10/24).

LCS: Fox averaged a 6.4 over 11 LCS games this season, down 6% from a 6.8 for ten games last year. The following details ratings for each game of the ALCS and NLCS (THE DAILY).

LCS GAME	DAY	DATE	'06 FINAL	'05 FINAL	% CHANGE
ALCS: Tigers-A's Game 1	Tues.	10-Oct	6.0	7.7	-22.1%
ALCS: Tigers-A's Game 2	Wed.	11-Oct	6.8	NA	NA
ALCS: A's-Tigers Game 3	Fri.	13-Oct	3.7	NA	NA
ALCS: A's-Tigers Game 4	Sat.	14-Oct	5.2	3.6	44.4%
NLCS: Cardinals-Mets Game 1	Thurs.	12-Oct	6.0	6.7	-10.4%
NLCS: Cardinals-Mets Game 2	Fri.	13-Oct	6.1	6.2	-1.6%
NLCS: Mets-Cardinals Game 3	Sat.	14-Oct	4.9	4.9	0.0%
NLCS: Mets-Cardinals Game 4	Sun.	15-Oct	5.9	7.2	-18.1%
NLCS: Mets-Cardinals Game 5	Tues.	17-Oct	7.5	7.5	0.0%
NLCS: Cardinals-Mets Game 6	Wed.	18-Oct	8.0	9.4	-14.9%
NLCS: Cardinals-Mets Game 7^	Thurs.	19-Oct	10.8	13.0	-16.9%
^ NLCS Game 7 in '06 is compared to Astros-Cardinals NLCS Game 7 from '04.

MAKEGOODS OFFERED? MEDIAWEEK’s John Consoli reports Fox officials would not “acknowledge that makegoods were doled out to advertisers during the [LCS] telecasts to make up for ratings shortfalls.” But a media buyer said, “Anytime a network is down double-digits, it is in a makegood situation.” Meanwhile, Consoli notes the lower ratings “may hurt Fox in its bid to win bragging rights as the net with the highest 18-49 rating at the end of the season.” A media researcher said that “being down double-digits for a month could result in a dip of one-tenth of a rating point for the season.” Fox won the 18-49 race last season by one-tenth of a point (MEDIAWEEK, 10/23 issue).

Rogers Controversy Biggest Story To Come Out Of World Series Game Two

FOREIGN SUBSTANCE: In St. Louis, Dan Caesar writes Fox was “responsible for exposing” the fact that Tigers P Kenny Rogers had a brown substance on his throwing hand during Game Two on Sunday, “which probably would have gone unnoticed otherwise.” Fox Sports President Ed Goren said, “If anybody’s taking [the story] to another level, it’s the press. We documented it, we followed up with the obligatory question to each manager and moved on” (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 10/24). But in N.Y., Bob Raissman writes Fox’ Joe Buck and Tim McCarver “never really explored this subject” of the alleged pine tar on Rogers’ hand. Nor did they “speculate if the pitcher’s recent success had anything to do with him bending the rules.” Raissman: “The subject of cheating and baseball is a sensitive one. Usually, the talk is about steroids. Not pine tar. If either McCarver or Buck wanted to hit the cheating angle hard, he would have been forced to put it in context of the entire topic” (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 10/24).

HOMERISM? In Detroit, Steve Schrader writes Buck and McCarver “can bend over backwards trying to be impartial on Fox, but as long as one of them is from St. Louis and still works some Cardinals games, and the other used to play for the Redbirds, the suspicion just isn’t going to go away” (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 10/24).