World Series: 9.6 Overnight For Game 1, Lowest Since '06

The 2011 World Series got off to the worst start since the last time the Cardinals were involved.

Game 1 between the Rangers and Cardinals earned a 9.6 overnight rating on FOX Wednesday night, down 8% from last year (TEX/SF G1: 10.4), and down 30% from 2009 (PHI/NYY G1: 13.8).

The 9.6 overnight is the lowest for Game 1 of the World Series since 2006 (STL/DET G1: 8.6), the last time Game 1 took place on a Saturday night — and coincidentally, the last time the Cardinals played in the event.

Overall, Wednesday’s game earned the second-lowest overnight ever for a World Series game that did not take place on a Saturday night, ahead of only Phillies/Rays Game 2 in 2008 (9.2).

The Game 1 overnight is especially ominous when one considers that both Rangers/Giants last year and Phillies/Rays in 2008 (10.3) earned better numbers. Those two series are tied as the lowest rated World Series ever.

Since 2000, final ratings for Game 1 of the World Series have declined between 7% and 20% from the overnight (last year’s Game 1 declined by 14%). That puts Wednesday’s game on pace to finish in the 7.7-8.9 range.

Since the World Series moved to its current Wednesday start in 2007, Game 1 has never been the lowest rated game of the series. In fact, in each of the past three years, final ratings for the World Series have declined from Game 1 to Game 2 to Game 3.

For some perspective, Game 1 of the Mavericks/Heat NBA Finals earned a 10.7 overnight on ABC and Game 1 of the Bruins/Canucks Stanley Cup Final drew a 3.2 on NBC.

Game 1 earned a 47.3 rating in St. Louis, up 15% from Cardinals/Tigers Game 1 in 2006 (41.0). According to the Dallas Morning News, the 47.3 is the highest local rating for any World Series game since 2007.

The game drew a 34.2 in Dallas-Ft. Worth, up 1% from Rangers/Giants Game 1 last year (33.9). By comparison, Game 1 of this year’s Mavericks/Heat NBA Finals drew a 29.9 rating in the market, and Game 1 of the 2006 Heat/Mavericks NBA Finals earned a 32.8.

(This year’s numbers from Dallas-Morning News; additional information from Associated Press 10/23/06)

MLB League Championship Series Numbers Game

Jon Lewis

Jon Lewis has been covering the sports media industry on a daily basis since 2006 as the founder and main writer of Sports Media Watch. You can contact him here or on the social media websites X (Twitter) or Bluesky.

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Comments 9

Chad says:

15 years ago

What will help the World Series now, is after tonight, the series should be 6 or 7 games, can’t see the Rangers or Cardinals sweeping the games in Texas.
paul douglas III says:

15 years ago

the real reason the ratings are low is because no one can stand to hear joe buck and tim mccarver anymore my next game will be in mute.
Joebucksucks says:

15 years ago

i think some of it has to do with the fact that joe buck sucks!
Matthewjtornatore says:

15 years ago

Also what’s lost in a lot of ratings comparisons are the types of viewers being attracted. In today’s tv landscape, a 9.6 rating on network is still very good. More importantly though, is how are these ratings in the WS going to do in the younger and more desired demos ie. 12-34, 18,34, 12-18,18-24 and 25-34.

60 minutes gets great HH ratings, but few advertisers care because majority of the viewers are 35+. I’d be interested to see how the Division and NLCS did in terms of these demos, as network tv generally skews higher in age. Will the WS be getting better ratings this year versus 06 in those demos, as potentially younger viewers have been following on cable and are tuning into the WS on Fox.
Matthewjtornatore says:

15 years ago

I think the buzz around this year’s season and playoffs have been down as a whole. The fact that Boston didn’t make the playoffs and the Yankees losing in the division series hurt momentum as well.
Guest says:

15 years ago

I’m amazed at how this and other media sites constantly emphasize the negative in sports ratings…lowest this, lowest that, blah, blah, blah. In this case, it’s the lowest since 2006. Has anyone noticed the fact that the 9.6 this year easily surpassed that 2006 overnight of 8.6? Or am I just seeing things?

Given the lack of major market star power for this series, a 9.6 doesn’t seem to be that bad.
SportsManiac says:

15 years ago

Redbird Nation not really that big of a nation, huh?
JakeFrankie says:

15 years ago

I see a lot of fans blaming the NFL for hurting World Series ratings from previous years. As shown here, It doesn’t matter what’s on that night MLB ratings wouldn’t take a huge bump just because it’s not facing NFL or College football.

I expect the local ratings too be a little higher than the NBA Finals one from this year, 2006 Dallas local ratings were higher than almost every 2011 Dallas NBA finals game.

Paulsen I reading some articles last week, That MLB Playoffs viewers median age is much higher than the NFL or NBA’s fanbase. Is there anyway you can get that info for the World Series? Regardless keep up the good work!
- Paulsen says:
  
  15 years ago
  
  Haven’t seen any recent numbers, but yes, the World Series does typically skew older than the NBA. The last two NBA Finals have averaged over a 7.0 rating among adults 18-49; even Phillies/Yankees in 2009 did not average numbers that high.