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The first game of the World Series helped Fox win Wednesday night, but the telecast was slightly lower in the ratings than last year.
The Rangers vs. Cardinals face-off was seen by 14 million viewers, down just 2 percent from 2010. Some thought the game would sink below the 2006 Game 1 all-time low of 12.8 million, but the program avoided that fate. For more baseball’s impact on Fox’s fall, see the EW story: Is the World Series still worth it for Fox?.
Across the dial, broadcast rivals largely shrugged at the baseball competition. Which isn’t to say nothing interesting happened.
ABC’s Revenge (7.9 million, 2.5), after its climb last week, went back down a couple tenths. It’s 10 p.m. rival CSI (10.6 million, 2.6) stayed the same — but now has the edge and won the hour, while Law & Order: SVU (7.6 million, 2.1) continued to just hang out staring vacantly into space.
ABC’s comedy block remained steady with The Middle (9 million, 2.9) and Suburgatory (8.8 million, 3.1). In the 9 p.m. hour, however, Modern Family (12.8 million, 5.6) and Happy Endings (6.9 million, 3.0) were down slightly. Modern Family, as usual, was the night’s top-rated program.
CBS’s Survivor (11.1 million, 3.3) and Criminal Minds (13.1 million, 3.9) were both up a tick. NBC’s Up All Night (5.6 million, 2.1) was steady and so was Harry’s Law (8.2 million, 1.2). (No Jason Alexander guest star bump, apparently.) Okay, maybe nothing really interesting happened after all.
Read more:
Is the World Series still worth it for Fox?
‘Revenge’ recap: That Scheming Harlot
‘Modern Family’ recap: Back to School
‘Survivor’ recap: Ozzy Loses It
Suburgatory was great last night. It’s my favourite new comedy of the season.
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They met-via { millionaireluv–сσм }
It is nice club for rich men or pretty girls mate.
You do not need to be wealthy or famous, but you can meet your true love, it’s worthy a try.
Perhaps baseball fans are ticked off that a wild card team that cruised below average all year knocked out division champs to get to the series? I think only division champs who are tired after battling all season should be eligible for the series, not teams who suddenly get hot just for the playoffs.
I think the wild card makes things more interesting; rewarding teams getting hot a the right time. Underdogs are always fun to cheer for. Plus I’m a Marlins (two WS titles as wild card) and Rays (the shot heard round Tampa Bay) fan.
Um….Cards won 90 games. That’s very good, and happens to be only 6 games less than Texas. Even though the Cards got into the playoffs on a late surge, I don’t think that means they flew ‘below average.’ Besides, the Red Sox beat the Cards in 2004 SOLELY because they got hot at the right time (the cards had 105 wins that year) so by your logic, the curse would still be on them.
Never said anything about the Cards being “below average.” That franchise is always above average, even on off years. Several of my Cardinals fans friends said they gave up on them this year. (One is actually going to tonight’s game). All that matters is they’re in it, they’re healthy and focused. They did get hot hot at the right time at the end of the regular season to fly under the radar into the playoffs (partial credit to the Atlanta Braves). They took down the seemingly unstoppable Phillies (yes!) in the division series and then sent the Brew Crew home crying (*bust* mode).
Baseball fans wanted to watch the Brewers. It’s as simple as that. And a lot of baseball fans simply don’t like the Cardinals. Reds fans. Cubs fans. Brewers fans. Not to mention Philly and Braves fans. Which means you root for the Rangers. And I don’t really want to root for the Rangers. I did watch, though. It was a good game.
@NedPepper: You must be smoking some good stuff if you are implying that more people would be watching if the Brewers were in the WS. The Cards don’t get any of the love reserved for the major-market East Coast teams, but they certainly are the most popular team in the heartland and have a MUCH larger fanbase than the Brewers. As Lance Berkman said, other NL Central teams like to hate on the Cards because they are the Darth Vader of the division; they always seem to win.
I’d be more invested. So would my friends. Everyone I know wanted a Brewers/Ranges or Brewers/Tigers WS matchup. But you’re probaby from St. Louis and are being too subjective. You probably also think Tony Larussa isn’t an a-hole that no other team in the Central Division has any respect for, including Dusty Baker. Even Bobby Cox had issues with Larussa and beloved all over baseball. I realize you are a Cardinals fan, and you’re not capable of being objective here.
@ned — Read on below and you’ll see that I am not a LaRussa fan. He’s an arrogant jerk who often overmanages, but he’s on the run of his life this postseason. Btw, Dusty Baker is also a pretty big jerk, so I wouldn’t put too much stock in what he thinks of TLR. Everyone you know wanted the Brewers in the WS, huh? Might you live in WI? THAT would be why. If you are honest with yourself, you know that the Brewers were a trash-talking immature team that was outclassed and outplayed by the Cards in that series.
In all reality, outside of a very few teams, there is VERY little national curiosity about any team. I LOVE baseball, but if my team isn’t in it, I might watch or flip through the channels, but it’s never a priority. I mean duh, a New York series is going to get higher ratings because there’s 45 billion people that live there compared to St. Louis or Milwaukee. Baseball just hasn’t expanded it’s popularity reach like the NFL has. Viewers tune into to any football game regardless of who is playing, baseball not so much.
Is it really a shock to anybody when a series including by smaller cities gets lower ratings than a series that includes cities with higher populations? It’s simple math. It certainly isn’t because of the quality of the organizations as both Texas (an up and coming powerhouse) and St. Louis (the class of the NL historically, no doubt) are quality. It’s really on tv for those 2 teams fans anyway, I doubt any Ranger/Cardinals fan, player, organization member even cares that the ratings are low, they’re teams ARE IN THE WORLD SERIES!!!!!!!
Um, the Brewers? The Brewers are a joke of an organization. The fact that you can have fans chanting “MVP” for an idiot like t-plush shows why Milwakee is not a baseball town. And you’re right, central teams hate the Cardinals, because we do things that other central teams don’t: we win. Try it for a change, you might like it.
No one was chanting MVP when he was up., They were chanting when Braun was up. They were chanting T when Morgan was up. But then again I wouldnt expect a moron card’s fan to realize that. You guys think you are the overseers of all that is right with baseball. Your city sucks and your team didnt win the central.
Agreed my brother!!!!! Or sister?
“Divisions” are arbitrary, anyway, and let teams in tougher groups get through.
And the Phillies clinched early and had plenty of time to rest and relax. And now they have a lot more time.
PERHAPS, those division teams have a cupcake division that doesnt deserve their position if they cant beat a wild card team.
Agreed. In sports with a series-style playoff, as opposed to single-elimination, there’s more likelihood that the BETTER TEAM makes it to the championship. In single-elimination, you can argue that the team had an off day. In a series, you have 5-7 games to prove you’re better.
Bitter Phillies and Brewers fans need to get over it. They lost, plain and simple, and in their own stadium. And yes, LaRussa is an a**hole. But no one ever said you have to be a nice guy to be an effective manager.
The Wild Card has done nothing but good for baseball. It creates more parity in the sport and allows smaller market teams like the Rays, Twins, Rangers, etc. a chance to make the playoffs.
If anybody says that the Cardinals don’t deserve to be in the playoffs then they don’t understand baseball. They had the best record in baseball in through May and then again the month of September. They had 1 bad month, 2 so so months, and 3 pretty good ones. AND they had more injuries to big name players than pretty much anybody in baseball. What they’ve done should be heralded by baseball fans because it shows that some teams don’t quit late in the season (Hi, Boston Red Sox)
It has nothing to do with the Cardinals late surge. It has to do with, whether people want to admit or not, no Yankees, Red Sox or Phillies in it. Love them or hate them, they help create ratings because they have more fans. Baseball fans I know could care less about these 2 teams. Although I watch, it’s just a boring series all together. Not to offend anyone or anything, because I do like the the Cardinals and am rooting for them. I’m just saying that if this was a Yankees-Phillies World Series or a Red Sox-Phillies world series, the ratings would be a tad better. Those teams are good for the sport.
I mostly agree that the majority of baseball fans (especially the more casual ones) would tune in if the Yankees, Red Sox or Phillies were playing – this coming from someone who pretty much can’t stand any of those three teams – but this is not a boring series.
Not too shocking considering there are no Yankees, Red Sox or Phillies playing. Real baseball fans watch the fall classic regardless of whether their team is still in it. Others are just sore losers and not real baseball fans. Game One was awesome; really set the stage for a dramatic, intense series.That being said, I’m going with the Cards in six.
Recent history shows the game ! winner, wins 8 of the last 10 World Series. There will be some drama in between, but the Cardinals went from underdogs to favorites, thanks in part to the All Star Game.
Game 1, excuse me.
Hi I hope you’re right Almster. It seems that times certain teams are destined to win. The Cards late season run was improbable and sets them up as the WS champs. Texas however is due for a comeback since they didn’t win last year. No one wants to be the Buffalo Bills- 4 straight superbowl games, no wins.
The ratings could be that no one cares about THE WORST CITY IN AMERICA AKA St Louis. Oh look theres a 9000 ft piece of metal overlooking the animal carcas floating Miss. River. Compelling TV!
Sounds like someone’s team didn’t make the series. More importantly, it sounds like someone’s never been to St. Louis before. What the hell are you talking about???
Amen…
I don’t know why Hibberd is so hell-bent on burying this series. Its sports – which means it isn’t scripted and it isn’t determined ahead of time. Its a competition – and not one of these ‘screw the other guy over to win’ deals.
Maybe if the media paid attention to more than just NY/Boston/Philadelphia all year and spread out the love, people would’ve been more aware of these two teams. And it might help if the network put a little more effort into their baseball coverage than Fox does. Just sayin…
ESPN caters to those teams for a reason… they have more fans than any of other teams and they want the ratings. And like it or not, those teams are good for baseball. Sorry, no, even as a baseball fan, I don’t want to waste my time watching the Padres play baseball. Like it or not, they’re the only reason the ratings aren’t even worse.
Agreed. It’s funny to see BoSox/Yankees fans whining when the whole wild card system was instituted to help their teams. Believe it or not, MOST baseball fans don’t really care about the Sox/Yanks except when they play our teams.
BUT as real fans to their TEAM will not give a crap bout other teams in the world series.
i think the media has a clear bias for east coast teams…didnt SI do a story on this? how the stories they choose to highlight impacts nation wide fan/viewership. thus its no wonder that a game played by a team from texas and a team from the midwest doesnt garner much more attention.
SI is one of the WORST violators!!! They had more stories about how the BoSox were losers than how Texas or Milwaukee were doing well. I stopped reading their baseball coverage because it was so abysmal toward the sport itself, instead focusing on teams that the majority of baseball fans don’t really care to read about.
Suck it Hibberd, you can’t have it both ways.
The series WON the night in the ratings. Period, end of story. You can’t claim both a win and a loss. Poor Zoey, I bet fox is missing her 2 share. Baseball gave them an 8.
Who care how many people watch the Series……GO CARDS!!!!!
YESSIR!!!
+100000000000000
I drive drunk and pass out behind the wheel and my awful city idolizes me anyways.
You sound like a Wisconsin politician.
You obviously don’t follow the Cards, or you’d know that most STL fans criticize La Russa frequently; we think he often overmanages. Frankly, I’ve wanted the guy gone for several years, but I have to admit he’s having the run of his life, decision-wise, this postseason.
@Brenda: The downside of having LaRussa gone is that Dave Duncan would probably be gone with him.
True. Dunc really is brilliant.
No, “most” fans don’t hate LaRussa. The fans that do hate him are the ones who are nostalgic for Whitey-ball and can’t move on. LaRussa is a hell of a manager, and a lot of people love him. He may not be the most media-friendly manager out there, but he wins, so the complaining is unjustified.
i’m going out on a limb and say hibberd has probably never sat through an entire ballgame
i do believe the lowest watched series to date was last years series, no offense to the giants or the rangers, i watch every year regardless if my team is in or not. that series tied with the phillies/rays series
the subway series had 12.4 rating what about them apples?!?
I disagree with you. He probably sat through an entire at bat.
Mis-entered. Probably hasn’t sat through an entire at bat.
The networks cause the ratings problems. They (ESPN, Fox) cover the Yankees, Red Sox and Phillies incessantly during the regular season. No other team has a chance to build a more national following. When those three teams are out of the playoffs, the only fans left are their local followers. If the national networks covered more teams during the season, they’d likely have better playoff ratings when teams other than the favored three are playing.
Perhaps when Fox’s MLB deal ends after next season,
maybe this’ll be when the “catering” stops,perhaps!!
So if a large market team isn’t playing in the WS, it isn’t worthy to televise on Fox? Of course the Cards/Rangers aren’t gonna get as many viewers because they aren’t large market teams. St. Louis fans have been called the best fans in all of baseball, but don’t knock them just because they aren’t from a large city like New York
They have been called the best fans in baseball by themselves.
although i respect your opinion, i highly doubt that every sports announcer and writer that says it is from St. Louis. good try though.
I’m far LESS likely to watch if the Yankees are in it. I can’t stand to sit there while their pitchers take 30 seconds to a minute in between pitches. The Yankees are the most excruciating team to watch in all of baseball. I want to see a ballgame, not Burnett or Chamberlain prancing around the mound, or A-Rod fn with his batting gloves before summoning up the courage to step into the box.
Same here. I absolutely DO NOT watch the Yankees in the WS unless I really love the NL team. The constant adulation heaped on them by whatever broadcasters during EVERY game distracts from my enjoying the game. I just appreciate great, competitive baseball. Of course, network suits don’t care what I think because I live in a flyover state.
Boo hoo.
@jen: I’m not crying. I’m JOYOUS that I don’t have to sit through watching the Yankees before baseball goes on hiatus for six months!
As a White Sox fan, I was over any delusions of them making the postseason in about July.
…baseball is still on TV? Zzzzzzzz…
Personally, I think Baseball’s time has come and gone. It is no longer “America’s pasttime”. Nobody watches it anymore and everybody can agree its about as exciting as watching bowling or golf on TV (read: not at all)
It is a relic of an era gone by. Most baseball fans are geriatric old men nowadays
Jay that was a knee slapper(read:you’re a gimp)
I agree with Tito. Sorry to break it to you, but you do not speak for anyone other than yourself. The numbers prove that you are, in fact, out of touch with American tastes and society.
But don’t worry, Fox will still show their karaoke contests for people like you.
First off, I HATE karaoke garbage TV.
2nd… The numbers actually support my argument, not yours. Numbers have been declining for years to the point where Fox would have better ratings if they just aired their regularly scheduled programming.
3rd… anything that could ever get delayed because of rain is NOT A SPORT. Real athletes play even when it is raining
FU Jay! Baseball is still the greatest sport going. Just because today’s ADHD youth can’t stand to watch a beautiful game unfold doesn’t make it’s time gone.
At the risk of sounding like an elitist snob, which I am not, I have to say that baseball is a thinking person’s game. During every at-bat, there are numerous decisions being made by both teams — hit and run? take a pitch? waste one high? — and part of the fun of being a fan is mulling over the options yourself, and then seeing how it unfolds. The game has no clock,and it may seem less frenetic and therefore less “exciting” for those casual fans who just want to see home runs or bone-crunching NFL hits, but it is plenty exciting when you understand the game and its nuances.
Nope not snobbish at all I’ve thought the same!
Well said Brenda!
They still need to pick up the pace. I don’t remember baseball games lasting this long back in the 70′s and early 80′s. Too many commercials and guys like Jeter adjusting all their gear betweeen each pitch. Not hating on Jeter but that annoys me.
I do agree with you, RobNJ. While the increased # of pitching changes (yes, you, TLR) do take up time, it’s the hitters who step out of the batter’s box after every pitch, and the pitchers who grind to a halt with a man on base that drive me nuts (Bartolo Colon was the absolute WORST for this). I wish the umps would disallow this. The supersized commercial breaks between each half-inning in the postseason don’t help, either. Still, these things don’t ruin my enjoyment of the game.
Well, obviously not everyone agrees with your statement. Even if viewership was down from previous years, 14 million people still watched (including me). Your opinion doesn’t speak for everyone.
nothing in st louis has the best of anything. it is garbage
The ratings are taking a hit because the Yankees, Red Sox, or Phillies aren’t playing, the game starts too late on a school night, and FOX has the worst announcers possible calling the game (Joe Buck is awful and McCarver is a moron).
@ned pepper bitter brewers fan much?!? morgan and greinke trashed talked themselves right to an early off season didn’t they?!
This. If you believe in karma, then you know that Nyjer Morgan totally reaped what he sowed.
amen!!
I don’t get how Joe Buck has a job. He comes across as a condescending dweeb who has no excitement for sports whatsoever. I loved it when Artie Lange blew up his talk show.
i don’t understand hoh joe buck fell so farm from the tree, his father was fantastic. had one of the greatest calls in world series history, 1991 Twins&Braves, game 6: And we’ll see you tomorrow night!!
Still gives me chills! Games 6 & 7 of that series were ones for the ages.
That’s your reference for Jack Buck? The guy who claimed after Gibson hit the game winning home run “I don’t believe what I just saw!” That is one of the all time great quotes.
rob – i wasn’t born yet when gibson hit that homerun so it was i was going from actual ‘experience’ of hearing the call live. so for me that call that i refrenced was the most exciting.
GO RANGERS!!!!!
I think the fact that there are so many channels now and so many different shows and the fact the series is the best of seven leaves the non die hard fans to say well my show is on tonight I can watch the other games….There is just too much mindless stuff on television to choose from now…Baseball is not dying but I bet if it were a one game series more people would tune in…I personally love the best of 7 and love my cards!!!!!! I have watched every game.