The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox have given ratings for Major League Baseball games a much-needed shot in the arm. Ratings for the Saturday afternoon meeting between the two rivals were up 11% on FOX, the first ratings increase for baseball on that network in over two months, while ratings for their Sunday night battle on ESPN drew a 3.6 overnight, up a whopping 72% over last year.
With both teams likely to make the playoffs, FOX and MLB must be hoping for another Yankees/Red Sox ALCS.
While baseball ratings are being inflated by big market rivals, NFL ratings are faltering. Yes, NFL ratings are far better than that of any other sport; still, the king of American sports could use a team like the Yankees or Red Sox to give the ratings a decent jolt, as the numbers continue to fall on FOX, NBC and ESPN.
Through two weeks of the season, all six primetime NFL games have seen declining ratings from last year, including both Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football this week. The Chargers/Patriots Sunday night game on NBC, which aired opposite the highly rated Yankees/Red Sox game and the Emmy Awards, drew a 9.8/16 final rating, down 18% from the 11.9/19 rating the comparable Washington/Cowboys game drew last year. Through Week 2, NBC is averaging an 11.0 rating for SNF, down 15% from a 12.9 rating through Week 2 of last year.
All three Monday Night Football games on ESPN this season have seen declines from last year, including last night’s Washington/Eagles game, which fell 10% from last year, from a 9.4 to an 8.5.
So far this season, only two NFL broadcast windows have managed to show increasing ratings from last year; in both occurrences, it was the 1:00 PM Sunday window on CBS.
