Fox drew a 25.2 overnight rating for last night's Cubs-Indians World Series Game 7, marking the best figure for a Fall Classic matchup since Game 7 of the D-backs-Yankees series drew a 27.0 overnight in '01 on a Sunday night. The 25.2 is up 66% from the most recent World Series Game 7 -- Giants-Royals in '14 (15.2 overnight). Cardinals-Rangers Game 7 in '11 drew a 14.1 overnight, while Angels-Giants Game 7 in '02 drew a 19.8 overnight (also on a Sunday). Figures for last night's game exclude the 17-minute rain delay that began around midnight. Last night's game peaked at a 31.1 rating at 11:15pm ET and dipped to a 24.3 right around the time of the rain delay. By 12:30am, the rating had picked back up to a 27.2. Chicago drew a 51.2 local rating as the Cubs ended a 108-year World Series drought, which is the best figure on record for any baseball game in the market. For a historical comparison, Boston drew a 51.3 local rating in '04 for the clinching Game 4 of Red Sox-Cardinals, which delivered the Red Sox the team's first World Series win in 86 years at the time. Cleveland-Akron drew a 48.6 local rating for last night's game. K.C. ranked third among all markets with a 36.0 local rating. For the seven-game series, Chicago averaged a 38.9 local rating, while Cleveland-Akron averaged a 43.3 (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
FOX AT ITS BEST: SI.com’s Richard Deitsch writes Fox "fielded its best combination of a game booth" in Joe Buck and John Smoltz -- as well as its studio show with Kevin Burkhardt, Pete Rose, Alex Rodriguez, and Frank Thomas and field reporters Ken Rosenthal and Tom Verducci -- "since it began airing the World Series" in ‘96. Deitsch gave Smoltz an "A" for his "exceptional work," which "didn't come as a surprise." Smoltz was praised on Twitter for his performance last night, and despite being a "rookie" analyst, he was "prepared, erudite and tremendous at diagnosing both pitching and hitting approaches." He “foreshadowed things to come" through the World Series. Deitsch: “Most impressively: He said Indians [CF] Rajai Davis’ only shot of handling Aroldis Chapman in Game 7 was a pitch down and in.” Davis then “clobbered a down and in pitch from Chapman for a two-run homer in the eighth inning to tie the game at 6-6.” Meanwhile, in his second season with Fox, Rodriguez also received an "A." He became an "even bigger asset for the show" with his "increased comfort level in front of the camera and his ability to play off Rose.” He might be the "best studio analyst in baseball already given his currency." Fox also got an "A-" for its "Sounds of the Game" segment last night for an in-game conversation between Cubs 1B Anthony Rizzo and C David Ross (SI.com, 11/3).
RISING TO THE OCCASION: SPORTING NEWS' Michael McCarthy writes Fox "brilliantly rose to the occasion" during last night's game. Buck, Smoltz and Rosenthal were "terrific," as they "let the game breathe and the emotion and history of the moment speak for itself." Buck gets credit for second-guessing Cubs manager Joe Maddon "for his quick hook, first with Kyle Hendricks and then Jon Lester." The Fox cameras "captured the emotion of the players, the managers and the fans" last night, including Cubs President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein "nervously holding his son in the stands" (SPORTINGNEWS.com, 11/3). Longtime N.Y. Times writer Richard Sandomir wrote Ross calming Rizzo in the dugout was "one of the best uses of an in-game player mic I've ever seen" (TWITTER.com, 11/2).
POOR TIMING: In Denver, Kieran Nicholson notes local baseball fans "cried foul" when the Game 7 telecast "froze, frustrating some viewers and keeping them in the dark." Some fans “got the game back four innings later.” A Comcast Xfinity outage map last night at 9:00pm PT “showed Denver as having the most reports of outages -- 78 -- in the country within the past 24 hours” (DENVER POST, 11/3).
