Lowest WS TV ratings Ever

And, aren't they the 3rd and 4th largest markets in the country. I could be wrong but both are big cities.

I hear people in Houston are crazy about baseball........until kickoff.

And, in general, cub fans were hiding under a rock, praying the Sox wouldn't win.

soxnole

What do cub fans have to do with national tv ratings?

Don't let your blatant bias cloud the rational picture for you

TRhit,

Obviously the low ratings had nothing to do with Cub fans. It seems that the rest of the country outside of Chicago and Texas didn't give a ****. There is a perception and a reality about which teams draw viewership and quite clearly the White Sox and the Astros were not part of that equation.

It is proven that the Yanks, Red Sox and Dodgers and Cards are the top draws on TV--they seem to have a following all across the USA

I do believe if I heard correctly, the largest TV attendence for teams is Yankees, Reds Sox, Braves, Cubs and one more that I missed hearing on ESPN(maybe the Cards).

TPM

I forgot about the Cubbies and Braves

Even though the ratings were the lowest in WS history, The WS was the highest rated "primetime" show each night it was on. Which proves that less people are watching TV.

I don' quite understand why the ratings drop so much. It says to me that there are alot of very casual baseball fans out there who can take it or leave it. I watch the World Series every year regardless of the participants. I thought this year had the potential for an excellent match-up. The games were actually quite close but they just all went to one side.

To all of you out there in TV land:


While most of the rest of the country was being entertained by the likes of...'Law and Odor', 'CSI-Minot,ND', 'Touched and then Let Down by the Angels', and 'Sixty Minutes -An Hour of Mystery and Misery' we were relishing in our gritty Chicago White Sox pounding out impressive win after impressive win to ultimately claim the World Championship!

If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it does it make a sound? Yes...yes it does! And we have the trophy to prove it!

I'm sorry that I missed all the offerings on the other networks during the play-offs and the World Series and I'm really on the edge of my seat... so all of you that were tuned into the tube and watching anything other than baseball please fill me in...Does everyone still love Raymond?, did that slimeball Jerry get whacked by Tina on Cheaters?, how desparate did they get on 'Wives'?, did Prez. Sheen pull us out of the quagmire yet?...edge of my seat!

Is it really a surprise to anyone that the White Sox and the Astros don't have large national fan bases? As a life-long White Sox fan, I don't really care. Both teams deserved to be there. I thoroughly enjoyed all 4 games. My feeling is that most solid BASEBALL fans watched the series, while those big TV numbers are created by casual fans also tuning in, which just doesn't happen when none of the "name" teams were good enough to get that far.

gotwood

Amazing that you know about all those shows

I have no idea what they are all about

TV for me is sports , good movies and my idol THE DONALD

TRHit:

I don't have much of a clue about any of them. Everything is pure speculation!

I also enjoy Donald Duck!

CentralIL:

Well stated.

How does one explain the 1980 W.S. between the Royals and Phillies having the highest TV rating ever of any W.S..

Why should anyone be surprised by the tv ratings?

Boston and NY...two huge markets, had no one in play. Losers, all. Saw that it costs $24.00 to park by Yankee Stadium and $48.00 for valet parking. Which little boy and his father can afford that? Virtually no one except the very rich and famous.

Just got back from Princeton and a day trip to NYCity...Saw 3 accidents involving cars and cabs within 2 hours..From what I saw, most of the cab drivers are Indian or Pakistanis and act as though they have never seen a "driving lane" in their lives...Saw some non-sensical signs posted re fines for blowing your horn which no one enforced...Traffic cops were virtually non-existent..Saw Yankee Stadium, Columbia, ESBuilding, SLiberty, TImes Square, Trump Tower and the UN...Drove along Central Park on West and then on East sides...Went shopping in Soho...Went to Long Island for the night...Port Washington.

Some beautiful sights and sounds, America. We all should travel more often.

Go White Sox!

quote:

Originally posted by tasmit:
Even though the ratings were the lowest in WS history, The WS was the highest rated "primetime" show each night it was on. Which proves that less people are watching TV.

Um, no it doesn't.

As far as advertizing dollars that 7% may be a significant number. My money says that a good portion of the 7% that did not watch were not baseball fans to begin with, they were consumers.

quote:

quote:
Originally posted by tasmit:
Even though the ratings were the lowest in WS history, The WS was the highest rated "primetime" show each night it was on. Which proves that less people are watching TV.


Um, no it doesn't.

Um, Yes it does.

o well with the tv ratings.. those were 4 great ws games and whoever watched them are probly quite satisifed

this series had a goodsotryline (white soxs first time 2 world series since 56 nd last time the won 1919) and astros first time in the series.

I know I watched every game !!!

By the way GOTWOOD--THE DONALD is not a cartoon figure

Didn't watch a game. I was visiting the State of Depression.

Really, the kid had either basketball or softball or s-o-c-c-er games each game time.

TRHit:

Well perhaps not in the 'classic' sense!

CoachB25:

Hot tea and cold compresses may chase that depression!

gotwood

I would answer you but I fear another reprimand

quote:

Originally posted by gotwood4sale:
CoachB25:

Hot tea and cold compresses may chase that depression!

Gotwood4sale, Spring and Baseball will do the trick. Until then, only thoughts of how my Knights and Cardinals ended their respective seasons will dance in my head.

Besides, I broke my TV during one of those Cardinal Playoff games. LOL!

The TV World Series national rating and share averages have been trending lower for the last 25 years. This is in comparison to its peak in the mid 70’s and early 80’s (1973 - 30.7/57, 1978 – 32.7/56, and the highest ever in 1980 – 32.8/56). WS TV ratings have not been higher than 20 since 1992 (20.2) and the shares have not been higher than 30 since 1995. Overall America has been watching less WS baseball. These numbers can be found at Baseball Almanac’s website.

What do the numbers bear out? IMHO several things. Bottom line we have more choices.

Broadcasting technology has gone through revolutionary, paradigm shifting, change propagating a major shift in American TV viewing habits. Don’t you just love the US of A!!! America’s pastime is falling victim to the American way – good ol’ red, white, and blue free enterprise capitalism. Over the last 25 years we have gone from 3 national networks to “pay for view”, satellite, and cable. The local national network’s sport venues are competing with ESPN 1&2, FOX Sports, and local cable, like Comcast (pioneered by none other than Jerry Reinsdorf). There is an argument that we can blame Reinsdorf for the White Sox’s lack of national following when he pulled the CWS game broadcasts from local WGN TV (Cubbies), which like TBS (Braves) has a national broadcast and following. Note that the CWS in 2005 were 17th in attendance vs. the best record in MLB. Follow the bouncing $...

Given the choice our household would select the Internet over the cable TV any day of the week. I was watching the game but I bet the log-ins to this site were non existent during the World Series??? However, I bet it did not affect the traffic on eBay, etc… How many would be viewers were surfing the Internet?

The economic over exuberance of the 1980s and 1990s generated a viewing market that has an emphasis on wining, not excellence, with a short attention span, lacing the patience and intelligence to learn the finer points of the game. This new viewing audience has a hard time with baseball because it is not orchestrated like football and basketball. Baseball does not have a time limit or instant replay and is relatively slow moving. MLB does not stop a game, except for national venues like the WS, for “commercial time outs” (a side bar being that this is one of the reasons network TV has a hard time generating revenue). However, that’s baseball’s beauty to those who understand. Instant gratification, Skippy the baseball, “I want my MTV”…

Bottom line the American public is losing interest.

Sorry for the diatribe. I can be a real bag of wind sometimes. TPM, interesting question. What is up with that????? tasmit makes an excellent point.

Bloto: Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
Otter: Germans?
Boon: Forget it, he's rolling.

Smokey,

Good post.

The reason I originally posted this was because I had brought it up before the NL title was determined. However, I did state that because it would not be a hitting game, most fans or non fans would not tune in or stay tuned long enough to watch, because most do not have patience for the slow pace.

Also I wanted to let the ILL Sox/Cubbie fans know that there were other things going on in the country at the time of the WS. There seemed to be a debate between Cubbie and Sox fans, which many of us had no interest in.
JMO.

TRHit:

No reprimands intended ...just plain ol' silly fun.

My own reason for more people not paying much attention to the WS is that you couldn't get passionate about either team.

Love them or hate them, people watch the Yankees and Boston ... and I would bet a majority of people watching are rooting against them. The Dodger, Cubbies, St. Louis ... people get passionate either for/against them.

When it got down to the White Sox and Houston, there just wasn't anything to get passionate about. Personally I didn't like either team but I didn't dislike them either. If you miss a game, o well ... no one to really root for anyway.

It came down to one thing ... did I want to listen to the announcers on Fox that evening ... I had to weigh my dislike for them against my love of baseball. The dislike for the FOX broadcast team won 2 of the 4 matchups.

Smokey:

Good post.

As far as no one posting on this site during the World Series chaeck out the 'Goof on the Moose' thread.

Smokey,

Excellent post with many valid points.

TPM,

Believe me, I understand fully that outside of our little slice of America baseball fans could care less about the Cubs/Sox dialogue. The point that was originally raised locally was that the Cubs would be a much larger national draw for Fox or ESPN than the Sox. That's all.

Beenthere-
What does putting newyork city down have to do with ws ratings. just wondering

quote:

The reason I originally posted this was because I had brought it up before the NL title was determined. However, I did state that because it would not be a hitting game, most fans or non fans would not tune in or stay tuned long enough to watch, because most do not have patience for the slow pace.

TPM,
Good point.

Does a "real" baseball fan turn it off because it is not going to be an offensive series? I found that the people in my area, who I consider baseball fans talked about...

The textbook slide at the plate
Pitchers ball movement
Crede being a complete player
How tachnology is putting the ump in the spotlight
Small ball
Moves to first
Situational substitutions
The importance of clutch hitting
The lack of clutch hitting
The importance of clutch pitching
The lack of clutch pitching

The best part of the series was they did not waste my time and talk about what Super-Star player X had for breakfast and other "Entertainment Tonight" bull. I thought it came down to the two teams that were playing the best ball at the time, were going to play in a 7 game series. Those who did not watch or turned it off, were not pure baseball fans.

Maybe because our area has not had a baseball team in contention for some time, and there is a huge dislike for the big market teams, that we watched to cheer for baseball. I think that because there was not a big-market team in the series, the rating numbers still tell us that baseball has a good base regardless of who's in it.

Another thought is that the ratings are down because no one wants to see a game drag on for 3+ hours. With that in mind maybe the networks who promote the game are responsible for turning people off. I for one knew that if I ducked out after the 3rd out of one inning I could bath the dog, make a sandwich, switch loads in the wash, and miss no more that 1/2 of even the quickest 1-2-3 inning.

CoachB25:

I'm hoping that TV you took out was the little 13" one in your shop behind the Shop-Vac and wood clamps...you know the one with the missing remote and most of the rabbit ear, not ears, mangled.


Of course if it was the 42" wide screen in the family room then your depression and hollow sound from your wallet is justified!

IMO, a real baseball fan would prefer a pitching match up to a home run barrage.

A TV audience is a poor place to hunt for real fans. Casual fans probably outnumber the "real" type at least 5-1.

Hirrel...Oops, sorry.

For you, I should have "stopped" typing after the first 2 sentences...

Because Boston and New York had no teams in play...losers all!

quote:

Originally posted by gotwood4sale:
CoachB25:

I'm hoping that TV you took out was the little 13" one in your shop behind the Shop-Vac and wood clamps...you know the one with the missing remote and most of the rabbit ear, not ears, mangled.


Of course if it was the 42" wide screen in the family room then your depression and hollow sound from your wallet is justified!

I am hoping you are right but then again, you're not. I now watch that little TV without remote control that you just described on those days that we watch anything at all. As I told my wife yesterday, (PARAPHRASED) "Hon, they are having a sale of TVs at..." To which she replied as soon as you can sell me on the fact that you've lost your temper, I'll be sold on getting a TV. WELL, I TRIED. We've been married 22 years and that is the 3rd one I've busted. We're still together so it must be love. LOL!

CoachB25:

A giant,thick sheet of Lexan in a sturdy frame positioned stategically in front of the tube should do the trick...that or a buckrt 'o Valium.