The biggest rivalry in baseball is losing some of its drawing power.
FOX drew a 2.5 final rating and 3.7 million viewers for regional MLB action featuring Yankees/Red Sox last Saturday, up 47% in ratings from coverage featuring Rays/Red Sox last year (1.7), but down 7% from the network’s first Yankees/Red Sox telecast last year (2.7).
Dating back to last season, this is the third straight Yankees/Red Sox telecast on FOX to draw less than a 2.6 rating. To put that in perspective, only three of the previous 24* regular season Yankees/Red Sox games on the network (dating back to ’02) finished below a 2.6.
Meanwhile, Sunday’s battle between the rivals drew a surprisingly low 2.1 U.S. rating and 3.2 million viewers on ESPN. The teams’ first Sunday night game of the season, which took place on Opening Night, drew a similarly unimpressive 2.0 and 3.2 million — though it should be pointed out that the ESPN2 telecast was blacked out in New York and Boston.
To put those numbers in perspective, all three Sunday night Yankees/Red Sox games last season drew ratings of 3.0 and well over 4 million viewers.
Both Yankees/Red Sox games were outdrawn by competing sporting events over the weekend. Saturday’s game only barely outdrew third round coverage of The Players Championship (2.3), and finished behind that night’s Lakers/Jazz game on ABC (3.7) and NASCAR on FOX (4.2).
Meanwhile, Sunday’s game was topped head-to-head by Suns/Spurs Game 4 on TNT (2.8, 4.7 mil).
* Final ratings for a 25th game (September 16, 2006) were not available.
