Fox Stays Consistant With WS Game 2 Overnight; Lowest Final Rating For Any Game 1

The Giants' 2-0 win over the Tigers in Game 2 of the World Series Thursday night once again drew an 8.8 overnight Nielsen rating, matching the same overnight figure for Game 1. The 8.8 figure is down 12% from a 10.0 overnight for last year's Cardinals-Rangers Game 2, which also aired on a Thursday. Last night's Buccaneers-Vikings game posted the lowest overnight rating of the year for a Thursday night game. NFL Network posted a 3.9 overnight for the game. There is no comp to last year (John Ourand, THE DAILY). The AP reported Tigers-Giants Game 1 “set a record low television rating for a World Series opener,” as the game received a 7.6 final rating and was watched by 12.2 million viewers. The rating is down 13% from an 8.7 for Cardinals-Rangers Game 1 last year. That game averaged 14.2 million viewers (AP, 10/25). In L.A., Joe Flint wrote under the header, “Game 1 Blowout Means Lower World Series Ratings For Fox” (LATIMES.com, 10/25).

AT THE COPACABANA: Fox Sports VP/Communications Dan Bell said that analyst Tim McCarver “obviously was joking” by bringing up musician Barry Manilow when play-by-play announcer Joe Buck referenced chants of “Barry” from the AT&T Park crowd during the Game 1 broadcast. USA TODAY’s Michael Hiestand writes, “Here's why you should believe that: For years, Buck and McCarver have an occasional schtick in which McCarver plays, well, dumb. What's different now is that if anybody doesn't get it -- and McCarver's humor can be missed -- it can go viral” (USA TODAY, 10/26). Meanwhile, in N.Y., Phil Mushnick writes under the header, “McCarver Analysis Way Off Base.” Following Giants 3B Pablo Sandoval's first home run in Game 1, McCarver, “who has developed a habit of telling us that we just saw things we didn’t just see, told us, ‘That’s a situation when [Tigers P Justin] Verlander did exactly what he wanted to do -- up and in,’ adding that credit is due [to] Sandoval for hitting a good pitch.” However, the replay “showed the pitch was, in fact, ‘up,’ but it was moving back toward the center of the plate.” The “contradictory video evidence was not mentioned” (N.Y. POST, 10/26).

FREE BIRDS: In St. Louis, Dan Caesar notes the Cardinals' nine Saturday afternoon telecasts this year on KTVI-Fox “drew a 34 percent better rating than their 148 contests -- many in prime time -- on cable's Fox Sports Midwest.” The trend “continued” in the Giants-Cardinals NLCS, as KTVI “drew a 16 percent better rating than the Cards pulled” for their NLCS showdown last year with the Brewers on TBS. The “difference between Fox and TBS ratings would have been even more profound had the Cards been competitive in the final three games” (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 10/26).