Little League World Series Championship Game Down From ’11

Posted by | 09/01/2012 at 12:04 am

The championship game of the 2012 Little League World Series was not even the highest rated game of the event.

Sunday’s Japan/Tennessee Little League World Series World Championship game drew a 1.9 final rating on ABC, down 21% from California/Japan last year (2.4), and down a tick from Japan/Hawaii in 2010 (2.0).

The 1.9 rating is the lowest for the Little League World Series title game since at least 1997 (ratings prior to 1998 were not available).

The telecast was not even the top rated game of this year’s Little League World Series. On Saturday, the Tennessee/California U.S. Championship game drew a 2.1 rating — up 17% from both California/Montana last year (1.8) and Hawaii/Texas in 2010 (1.8).

Both the World Championship and U.S. Championship games outdrew regional Major League Baseball action on FOX (1.4).

Also over the weekend, the Japan/Panama International Championship game drew a 1.3 final rating — up a tick from Japan/Mexico last year (1.2), but down a tick from Japan/Taiwan in 2010 (1.4).

Ratings For the Little League World Series Championship
Past decade

(Weekend numbers from Sports Business Daily)

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  • ZabriskiePt

    I didn’t know there had been a so big drop in LLWS TV ratings in the last decade and, particularly, between 2002 and 2005. What has happened in that span of time? Are there any reasons or is it simply a steep drop due to popularity? Could there be a relationship between declining youngsters’ participation in Baseball organized leagues and TV followers? Or are there any more simple reasons related to the TV landscape?
    Thanks a lot for the answers and the great work!

    • Paulsen

      ABC used to air the championship game in primetime; I think that would account for the drop-off from the early 2000s.