Fox drew a 9.3 overnight rating for the Royals' 7-1 win over the Mets last night, pushing the net to its best two-game World Series average since '10 and besting the 9.1 overnight for the Republican presidential debate on CNBC, which aired head-to-head for much of the game. The 9.3 overnight is up 6% from an 8.8 for Giants-Royals Game 2 last year, but down from a 9.5 for Red Sox-Cardinals Game 2 in '13, which aired on a Thursday up against a Panthers-Buccaneers game on NFL Network. Giants-Tigers Game 2 in '12 drew an 8.8 overnight on a Thursday night. Last night's game delivered Fox a primetime win among all nets, as well as its best Wednesday night audience since March. K.C. led all markets with a 56.6 local rating, while N.Y. drew a 21.3 rating. Game 2 peaked at a 10.8 rating from 9:45-10:00pm ET. The telecast was drawing a 9.5 rating from 9:45-10:00pm, but jumped to a 10.3 from 10:30-10:45pm as the GOP debate concluded. Through two games, Fox is averaging a 10.0 overnight rating, up 19% from last year and the net's best start to a World Series since '10, when Giants-Rangers was averaging a 10.2 overnight through two telecasts (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
FIRST BASE: Fox finished with 14.9 million viewers for the 14-inning Mets-Royals Game 1 on Tuesday night, marking the best audience for a World Series opener since Giants-Rangers drew 15.0 million viewers in '10. Mets-Royals Game 1 was up 22% from 12.2 million viewers for the Giants-Royals opener last year. Fox saw 10.3 million viewers tune in at the start of the game from 8:04-8:15pm. The first nine innings of the telecast averaged 15.2 million viewers from 8:04-11:30pm, then 14.4 million viewers for the extra innings from 11:30pm-1:02am. Meanwhile, Fox Sports Go saw 177,000 unique viewers for Game 1, marking the platform's best MLB game audience on record and second-best audience for any event since its launch (Fox).
LIGHTNING RODRIGUEZ: In N.Y., Bob Raissman writes Fox is giving analyst Alex Rodriguez the "star treatment" during the World Series, as while he shares to pre- and postgame set with three other analysts, "only A-Rod has made half-inning appearances" during the first two World Series games. Rodriguez during Game 2 joined the booth during the fourth inning, and he was "okay, not spectacular," as he "talked mostly about facing" Mets P Jacob deGrom. In his first two pregame show appearances, Rodriguez "delivered some insight in a clear and concise manner." He is "engaging, but at times seems above it all, not one of the guys." Should Rodriguez decide to become an analyst once his playing career is over, he is going to "have to work on developing some likeability, try to engage in some serious interaction with his colleagues." He "needs to laugh a little and try busting chops," as at times he has "seemed scripted" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 10/29).
TROUBLING TREND? In N.Y., Richard Sandomir writes an argument "can be made that baseball, with its long season and heavy local broadcasting of games, is stronger regionally than nationally, diminishing the allure of any World Series in which your team is not involved." And the recent trend of "putting nearly every league championship series game on cable, and not broadcast television, has probably facilitated the downward trend of World Series viewership." Over the past 11 years, only 10 World Series games "have drawn more than 20 million viewers," with four coming in the five-day stretch when the Red Sox swept the Cardinals in '04 (N.Y. TIMES, 10/29).
POWER PITCHERS: BROADCASTING & CABLE's George Winslow noted Fox "revamped its power plans" for Game 2 after losing power in the middle of Game 1. The net brought in new generators and had its "main production truck hooked up to the stadium's power." Fox Sports Senior VP/Technical & Field Operations Michael Davies said that the net "may also bring in some new technology called a UPS or uninterruptable power supply" for Games 3-5 at Citi Field (BROADCASTINGCABLE.com, 10/28). The Daily News' Raissman noted there are a "lot of people who work behind the scenes there who really felt it, who really panicked, who really were hurt" when Fox lost power. Raissman: "Before you go crazy on these guys, remember this: Just like there are people behind the scenes working here, there are people that their livelihoods are based on efficiency and getting the job done. They're the one who took the beating last night” (“Daily News Live,” SNY, 10/28).
EVERY FIBER OF MY BEING: In K.C., Scott Canon notes Google Fiber, after crashing in the market at the start of Game 1, "responded with an apology and on Wednesday promised customer credits equal to the cost of two days of service." The shutdown "hit TV and Internet customers on Google Fiber’s system broadly" across the K.C. market, and most customers "lost service" around 7:00-7:35pm CT on Tuesday. Others "lost their connections for several hours, although it returned" before the end of the game. Google said that it "did not know exactly how many customers lost service." It has "regularly declined to say how many subscribers it sells to in the market." Google noted that it "resolved the problem entirely" by 10:15pm CT and the company was "taking steps to make sure the problem doesn’t make an encore" (K.C. STAR, 10/29).
