You couldn?t ask for a better World Series matchup. The red-hot Red Sox (three straight wins against the Indians) against the red-hot Rockies (winners of 21 of their last 22). So, where?s the buzz, where?s the hype? Where?s all the excitement?
The series begins tonight in Boston (8 o?clock) with Joe Buck and Tim McCarver calling the game for Fox-TV, and Joe Morgan and Jon Miller handling the duties on ESPN Radio.
When I was a kid the World Series was far more important than the Super Bowl, and if we were lucky we could get a teacher to let us watch an inning or two on TV. They had day games back then.
The Fall Classic is still the second-biggest sporting event on TV (the Super Bowl is No. 1), but the numbers continue to fall off. There is so much baseball on TV that by the time the World Series rolls around, unless there is a compelling story line, fans just aren?t that interested.
Prior to 1994 when the World Series was canceled because of a players? strike, the World Series was a ratings monster ? consistently drawing in the 20-plus range. They were pretty good in 1999 (NBC) ? 16.0 when the Yankees beat the Braves, and they won every night during that entire Series. Since then, it?s been spotty. The Yankees-Diamondbacks in 2001 did well with a 15.7 (Fox), and in 2004, when the Red Sox swept the Cardinals after climbing out of a 3-0 hole against the Yankees in the American League Championship Series, the ratingswere a 15.8 (Fox).
The past two years (both on Fox) have been dismal ? 11.1 in 2005, 10.1 last season.
It?s not like baseball isn?t doing well. Over the past 10 years baseball has had a steady increase in attendance, and the league continues to set highs for filling ball parks. Baseball has a lucrative TV contract, and worldwide, the game has never been better.
So why the cool ratings for baseball’s biggest event?
A huge factor has been the late starting times.
The last day game in the World Series was in 1987 (Twins vs. Cardinals), and that Series averaged a 24.0 rating. The lack of day or early-evening games on the weekends has been a big factor, as the networks go for prime-time ad dollars. But they have lost the family demographics.
Another factor may be what we in the business call “The McCarver Factor.” Many baseball fans are not fans of lead analyst Tim McCarver and say they don?t watch because of him. That may be a lame excuse. But I am sure the World Series is losing fans because of McCarver.
Maybe the real issue is that we all have a bad case of remote-control trigger-finger. We can watch snippets of the game, then change channels to CSI or Ugly Betty and get the score on our cell phones and computers. We have become a nation of multitaskers, where baseball is far too slow and our attention span is far too short.
Fox-TV will do fine from its standpoint ? that is, “Will the Series get better ratings than our regular programming?” The answer is yes.
“Will we be able to use the World Series to promote our network in every way possible?” Again, the answer is yes.
And that?s the bottom line.
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this! on www.examiner.com.
