The Astros and Nationals face off for the final time tonight in Houston in Game 7, the "most beautiful words to a Fox executive" in a World Series that has seen lower TV ratings, according to Alan Pergament of the BUFFALO NEWS. Ratings usually "increase when a potential deciding game is played." Locally in Buffalo, Game 7 "just about assures that ratings for this year's Fall Classic will equal or exceed the local ratings for last year's five-game series." And in the "days of declining network ratings, that's a TV victory" (BUFFALO NEWS, 10/30). ESPN’s Jessica Mendoza said of Game 7, “This is what the sport needs, it’s what you want” (“First Take,” ESPN, 10/30). ESPN’s Sarah Spain: “We get a Game 7 tonight, which I think everyone’s excited about” (“The Dan Le Batard Show,” ESPN Radio, 10/30). ESPN’s Mike Greenberg: “We have the two best words in sports on the docket: Game 7” (“Get Up,” ESPN2, 10/30).
VOLUME CONTROL: In DC, Ben Strauss noted when President Trump was shown on the video board Sunday at World Series Game 5, the Nationals Park crowd "booed lustily," but viewers at home watching Fox' telecast "did not hear about the boos when the broadcast returned from a commercial break." Fox showed Trump "ahead of the third inning, when the camera panned to his party." Since the boos happened while the broadcast was on a commercial break, they "would have been showing a replay or commenting not in real time." Former Fox MLB producer Michael Weisman said that he "thought Fox handled the moment correctly, noting the desire of sports broadcasts to avoid third-rail issues such as politics and religion." Weisman: "Fox was lucky the boos happened during a commercial break because if it happened during the game you have to explain the boos to the audience. But once it was at commercial, I don't think you have to go back to it" (WASHINGTON POST, 10/30).
CAUSE FOR CONCERN? The AP's David Bauder noted from an audience perspective, the World Series was "really hurt Sunday night, when 18.3 million people watched" Packers-Chiefs on NBC compared to the 11.4 million who tuned into Game 5. That is the "widest viewership margin an NFL game has ever had over a World Series game at least since Nielsen began keeping more precise records" in '87 (AP, 10/29).
