Rain in Philadelphia could single-handedly help the Phillies/Rays World Series avoid being the lowest rated of all time.
There is a 70% chance of rain in Philadelphia on Saturday night, when Game 3 of the World Series is scheduled to be played. Should the game be rained out, Game 3 would move to Sunday, Game 4 to Monday, and Game 5 would be played on Tuesday night.
Saturday nights are the lowest rated nights of the week, and have traditionally led to low ratings for World Series games. Prior to Game 1 of the Phillies/Rays series on Wednesday, the three lowest rated World Series games in history had all taken place on Saturday nights. Additionally, the lowest rated games of every World Series since 1996 have taken place on Saturday nights.
How much of a drag do Saturday night games have on World Series ratings? Last year’s Red Sox/Rockies series averaged a 10.5 for all four games. When the Saturday night Game 3 is excluded, that average rises to an 11.4. The same can be said for other recent series. Once the Saturday night game is taken out, the average rating rises from a 10.1 to a 10.6 for the ’06 Cardinals/Tigers series, from an 11.1 to an 11.7 for White Sox/Astros in ’05, and from a 15.8 to 16.6 for Red Sox/Cardinals in ’04.
One could estimate that the numbers for Phillies/Rays could increase anywhere from .5 to .9 ratings points by having Saturday night’s game postponed to another night.
