Fox earned a 4.6 overnight Nielsen rating for the 11-inning Tigers-Rangers ALCS Game Two yesterday afternoon, down 29% from a 6.5 rating for the net's Giants-Phillies NLCS Game Two, which aired on a Sunday in primetime. Compared to Fox' NLCS Game Three last year, which aired on a weekday afternoon, Tigers-Rangers is up 21% from a 3.8 overnight. Detroit led all markets with a 26.4 local rating, while Dallas-Ft. Worth averaged a 21.2 rating. Yesterday's game opened with a 2.3 rating in the 4:15pm ET quarter-hour, and grew steadily throughout the telecast, peaking at a 7.3 rating in the final quarter-hour. Through two games, one of which was impacted by two rain delays on Saturday night, and the other rescheduled from Sunday primetime to Monday afternoon, the ALCS on Fox is averaging a 4.3 overnight. That is down 27% from last year's NLCS, in which the first two games both aired in primetime, and down 34% from a 6.6 two-game average for the Yankees-Angels ALCS in '09. Meanwhile, TBS earned a 2.4 overnight for the Cardinals' 12-3 win over the Brewers in NLCS Game Two last night, marking the net's second-lowest rating for a LCS game since it acquired MLB postseason rights prior to the '07 season. Last night's game aired up against ESPN's Bears-Lions "MNF" and is down 46% from a 4.4 overnight for the TBS' comparable Yankees-Rangers Game Two last year, which aired on a Saturday afternoon. Last night's game earned a 29.6 local rating in St. Louis and an 18.9 rating in Milwaukee (Austin Karp, THE DAILY).
RETURNING TO FORM: On Long Island, Neil Best notes Joe Buck sounds like himself again, while "for months, Fox viewers had wondered when, if ever, that voice would sound right again." Buck said, "Saturday I thought was basically a normal broadcast. We were on for five hours. If it was ever going to be tested, that was it. I feel like I've climbed out of the woods." Doctors assured Buck that the problem "would dissipate with time," but he acknowledged that he "would be lying if he said there were no anxious moments." Best notes for the first two ALCS games, Buck "had to play a larger role than usual because novice analyst Terry Francona sat in for Tim McCarver, who after a minor medical procedure last week is set to return" tonight. Francona's "guest gig was a huge critical hit," which was "no surprise to Buck, who lobbied for it." Buck said, "I knew the kind of humor he had, the quick wit, the sharp mind, all of which makes him way overqualified for this job, by the way. I thought the risk was outweighed by the relevance of someone who had just managed these games to come up and tell us about them" (NEWSDAY, 10/11). The four teams remaining in the playoffs are all from the midwest, and Buck said, "If you think there's an East Coast bias, you're right. That's where the eyeballs are and that's where ratings are. But I think it's good for the Midwest. These are proud franchises and deserve to be in the spotlight, and they've played the best so they deserve to be here" (NEWSDAY.com, 10/10).
COMMISH SATISFIED: MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said he is "satisfied" with TV ratings for this year's postseason despite not having big-market teams like the Yankees, Red Sox and Phillies still playing. Selig said, "Having different clubs win is not bad at all. And I'm proud of that. But, you know, and I really mean this, what's better for ratings is something we just can't worry about. I think I looked at the last two weeks, it's been just miraculous." Meanwhile, Selig said of the use of pitch trackers on TV broadcasts, "It's part of the world we live in. They do that in all sports now and different things. I really am not critical of that. If I were them, I guess I'd do the same thing. ... I keep asking people how accurate those zones are and I get different answers from different baseball people. But, a lot of competition out there, a lot of things. So I can't blame them for doing that, I really can't" (CBSSPORTS.com, 10/10).
OFF-FIELD DEBUT: Pirates P Joel Hanrahan last night made his debut as an guest analyst on MLB Network and said, "My agent has some connections here, and he asked if I'd be interested, and I figured it would be a good idea to see what it's like. Who knows what to look for in the future? It could possibly be something good, see if I like it or not" (MLB.com, 10/10).
