World Series Ratings from 1968

[petrel]

In the "Sox or Rox" thread, someone speculated that FOX must really love this World Series (and must have dreaded a Cleveland-Colorado matchup) as the ratings for the Series would naturally increase with the larger market.

The following link provides the Nielsen ratings for every World Series since 1968:

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/ws/wstv.shtml

There's not much you can conclude -- as cable television offers more and more options, the ratings would obviously be lower than before 1980, when one only had three programming choices (four, if you had PBS).

A few surprises: the 1970 ratings and the 2006 ratings.

--Pet

[ohms_law]

Huh... interesting.
There's been quite a lot of speculation about how accurate the Neilson ratings have been, overall, in the last several years. Granted, the recent losses of share are probably somewhat accurate, as you mentioned there's much more television available now. With overall increases in attendance and income for baseball as a whole though, it makes you wonder what's really going on.

[RickD]

Interesting though I would say just as network tv program ratings have gone down with the expansion of cable the same is true here.

[TexanBob]

Interesting. Who would have guessed that the highest rated World Series would feature those two magnetic draws - the Kansas City Royals and the Philadelphia Phillies? (1980)

[robinhoodnik]

I remember that year and those two teams were at the pinnacle. Brett and Schmidt were both wildly popular players and both teams were exciting.

[Reade]

Schmidt

Unless your a cubs fan. I swear it felt like he hit half is home runs against the Cubs

[HoustonGM]

Unless your a cubs fan. I swear it felt like he hit half is home runs against the Cubs

14%! He did hit more home runs against the Cubs than he did against any other team.

[Reade]

I knew he loved to come to Wrigley. God how I hated him, but the man could play

[skudplayr]

Interesting stuff!

Although it is pretty sad how few people have watched the series the past few years. With the exception of 2001 (9/11) and 2004 (Red Sox), the ratings have been terrible. Especially the past two series.

[gosensgo101]

If the games finished before midnight they might get a few more viewers, especially from the younger generation. I consider myself a big baseball fan and I've fell asleep during both World Series games so far. They're just so dang long, and late.

[skudplayr]

yeah, the games don't start till like 8:40...it's a shame..they should begin them an hour before, but it's always about the west coast viewers

[boomboom]

If the games finished before midnight they might get a few more viewers, especially from the younger generation. I consider myself a big baseball fan and I've fell asleep during both World Series games so far. They're just so dang long, and late.

On the west coast they are not that late...

It wouldn't make sense to put the game at 3pm PST, everybody is at work.

[skudplayr]

they should just show the game twice...once for the east coast and once for the west coast..and it's up to the west coast not to watch any news or go online or anything...

but that would never happen, which is why i say a 7:30 start time is fine. 4:30 for the west coast

[HoustonGM]

If the games finished before midnight they might get a few more viewers, especially from the younger generation. I consider myself a big baseball fan and I've fell asleep during both World Series games so far. They're just so dang long, and late.

Heh, I've dozed off in a bunch of the recent playoff games, but that's probably more due to my extreme lack of sleep than the playoff games being boring.

(My sleep schedule is basically 3 or 4 AM to 7 or 7:30 on the weekdays, and then 3/4 AM to 3/4 PM on the weekends)

[boomboom]

Heh, I've dozed off in a bunch of the recent playoff games, but that's probably more due to my extreme lack of sleep than the playoff games being boring.

(My sleep schedule is basically 3 or 4 AM to 7 or 7:30 on the weekdays, and then 3/4 AM to 3/4 PM on the weekends)

That is because you are on here 24/7 and you don't play BMO