Fox drew a 15.1 overnight rating for Astros-Dodgers last night, marking the best World Series Game 6 figure since Yankees-Phillies drew a 15.5 in '09 on a Wednesday night. The 15.1 is up 2% from a 14.8 overnight for Cubs-Indians last year, which was also on a Tuesday. Last night was the first time during this year's Fall Classic that an Astros-Dodgers telecast topped a game from Cubs-Indians. Giants-Royals Game 6 in '14 drew an 8.9 overnight. There was no game 6 in '15. Last night's game also delivered Fox its best primetime figure since Super Bowl LI in February. Houston led all markets with a 41.8 local rating last night, which is the market's best figure since White Sox-Astros World Series Game 4 in '05 (42.2 rating). Through six games, Fox is averaging an 11.8 overnight, down 8% from Cubs-Indians last year (12.8 rating), but up 17% from the five-game Royals-Mets series in '15 (10.1) and up 46% from Giants-Royals in '14 (8.1) (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
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WORLD SERIES GAME-BY-GAME OVERNIGHT RATINGS
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GAME
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'17 ASTROS-DODGERS
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'16 CUBS-INDIANS
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1
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10.2
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12.6
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2
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11.0
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11.3
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3
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10.4
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12.4
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4
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10.6
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10.5
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5
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12.8
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15.3
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6
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15.1
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14.8
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BACK AT THE WALL: AD AGE's Anthony Crupi wrote baseball purists may "pine for the understated spectacle of the classic pitchers' duel," but if ratings for the '17 World Series are any indication, an "awful lot of fans prefer to bear witness to towering home runs" (
ADAGE.com, 10/31).
DYNAMIC DUO: Former MLBer David Ortiz has been working as a commentator on Fox' MLB postseason studio crew, and SI.com's Ben Reiter wrote Ortiz credits host Kevin Burkhardt and fellow panelists Keith Hernandez and Frank Thomas with "making him comfortable." But his "greatest tutor" has been the person "even he might have expected to be the least likely candidate" in Alex Rodriguez. Fox execs had some "concerns when batting around the idea of bringing in Ortiz to replace Pete Rose," the "central issue" being the presence of Rodriguez. But Rodriguez was "unequivocal." He said, "You bring [Ortiz] in here and I got him." Ortiz said, "I love the way that A-Rod does things. He’s a guy that works extremely hard at what he does. I have learned so much from him." He added, "It’s not easy to connect with people. Since I’m very sincere, and I speak from the heart every time I say something, I guess people connect with that." Reiter noted Ortiz' openness "made him an ideal replacement for Rose, who also came across as real, although in a different, more rumpled way." Ortiz is an "equally good counterpoint to Rodriguez, who even in his post-career renaissance still never quite seems to be entirely genuine, although it is certainly possible that Alex Rodriguez has been playing the role of Alex Rodriguez for so long that it has become indistinguishable from his true identity" (SI.com, 10/31).
