The decision to counterprogram the Olympics with Alex Rodriguez‘ final game did not pay off for the FOX broadcast network.
Friday’s Rays/Yankees Major League Baseball game earned a 0.7 final rating and 1.0 million viewers on FOX Friday night, almost certainly the lowest rated and least-watched MLB telecast ever on an over-the-air network.
With the caveat that there is no complete, publicly available record of MLB ratings on broadcast television, it is highly unlikely that any game in the TV ratings era has posted lower numbers on one of the “Big Four” networks. The lowest figures prior to Friday were a 0.8 and 1.1 million for Yankees/Red Sox on FOX in September 2014, Derek Jeter‘s penultimate game.
Beyond baseball, very few sporting events of any kind have pulled lower numbers on primetime broadcast television. Earlier this year, FOX drew a 0.6 rating and fewer than one million viewers for a primetime Copa America doubleheader. In 2013, the network scored a 0.5 for Real Madrid/Everton in a primetime International Champions Cup match.
Low numbers were to be expected for Rodriguez’ finale, given his poor image, the mediocrity of the participating teams and hefty competition from the Olympic Games. Furthermore, unlike the typical MLB broadcast on FOX, the game was nonexclusive. YES Network attracted 368,000 for its coverage, according to Programming Insider.
Yet FOX could not have anticipated that Friday’s game would fail to match Masterchef reruns in the same window a week earlier. The reality show earned a 0.8 and 1.2 million for its first hour and a 0.9 and 1.4 million for its second the previous Friday night, despite facing slightly tougher Olympic competition. It also posted higher ratings in adults 18-34 and 18-49.
For the night, Rays/Yankees was the lowest rated and least-watched program on the “Big Four” broadcast networks.
(Fri. numbers from Programming Insider)
