Fox Earns 10.3/17 Overnight Rating For Phillies-Rays Game One

Fox Earns 10.3 Overnight For Phillies-Rays World Series Game One

DO RATINGS MATTER? Fox' Joe Buck said if postseason series "go long … and people are hanging on every pitch in a final game, winner take all, that’s when you get the biggest audiences and that’s what happened with the last series in the ALCS. … That has to happen if you’re going to get big ratings” ("PTI," ESPN, 10/22). The GLOBE & MAIL's Jeff Blair yesterday participated in an online chat, and when asked if Phillies-Rays has "any chance of attracting a large following." Blair wrote, "I just don't think TV ratings matter any more. They provide a nice talking point, but network television is becoming less and less of a concern at baseball's head office -- online revenues are where it's at -- and that will be the case even more when [MLB Network] starts up" (GLOBESPORTS.com, 10/22).

UNDER REVIEW: In St. Petersburg, Tom Jones writes the "best part" of Fox' telecast of Phillies-Rays Game One was "listening to Rays manager Joe Maddon argue with home-plate umpire Tim Welke on what might have been a balk on Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels and listening to analyst Tim McCarver discuss it." Jones: "Good, good stuff." Jones writes viewers "have to listen really, really hard and really, really nitpick if you're going to find fault" with Buck and McCarver, both of whom "got off to a good start" in Game One (ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, 10/23). In Albany, Pete Dougherty noted Fox for the World Series "repositioned the center-field camera to directly behind the mound, so that the pitcher's head blocks our view of home plate on virtually every pitch." Dougherty: "Yes, it gives a more acccurate picture of whether a pitch goes over home plate, but what good is that if the pitcher's head blocks the view?" (TIMESUNION.com, 10/22).

POLL VAULT: THE DAILY ran a non-scientific poll over the last 24 hours, asking readers what Nielsen rating they thought Fox would average for the Phillies-Rays World Series. Of the 124 respondents, 41 said the average for Fox would be between 9.0-10.0, with 27 respondents saying the rating would be below a 9.0 and 26 respondents saying between a 10.1 and 11.0. Another 21 respondents said the rating would be between 11.1-12.0, while only nine respondents said the rating would be over a 12.0.

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