The Boston Red Sox are again back from the brink, tying the series at 3 games each. Winning game six by a score of 4-2, the Red Sox force the best thing in baseball, and all of sports: game seven. Boston is now a perfect 9-0 in playoff elimination games (edit: in best of seven series) under Terry Francona’s management. Wow. 10-0 will get them back to the World Series.
The game got off to an auspicious beginning with TBS suffering technical difficulties in Atlanta forcing them to air instead the Dick Clark bloopers show for a portion of the pregame show and then The Steve Harvey Show at the beginning of the game. Fortunately the troubles lasted only for the first inning, by which time the Red Sox were already down one run, but shame on TBS for being very late running the crawlers about the technical difficulties. If not for the Internet, and reading about the problems I might have just assumed I was in some kind of Comcast purgatory due to bad karma.
Then adding insult to injury (literally) the home plate umpire got hurt, causing a 15 minute or so delay as he went off to the hospital and they figured out how to switch things around and made do with the existing crew. In the end, the Red Sox won , forcing a game seven tomorrow night.
This should be especially indicative of the difference of an ALCS (American League Championship Series) game 7 on cable channel (that is not ESPN) vs. broadcast. Last year’s game seven on between the Red Sox and Cleveland garnered 19.15 million.
The Boston Red Sox vs. Tampa Bay Rays won’t likely get ten million on TBS (though I hope I’m wrong). I don’t want to hear anything about Sunday Night Football blah, blah, blah because last year game seven vs. Cleveland went against Sunday Night Football and got 19.15 million versus Sunday Night Football’s 13.29 million (Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Denver Broncos), but I will be interested to see if on TBS game 7 can break even 11 million – though even at 9 million, with a game they surely are happy to have, and with much better results than last year, TBS will be happy.
And though I am in not a Red Sox fan, I have to admire them continually staving off the brink in the 2000s, and Fenway Park is such an awesome venue. But, the truth is, for my viewing pleasure there’s not much better than a game seven, especially in October.
what did game 5 do in the ratings?
it did a 4.7 household rating and averaged 7.21 million viewers. And Boston fans tuned in en masse as they mounted the game 5 comeback
i hate the Red Sox, but i must say Mlb needs the ratings at this point. A Red Sox/Phillies series would do good. I think it would average between 14-19 million viewers per game. That would be gold for fox and mlb. On the other hand a Rays/Philli series would most be a ratings bust. Robert, what do u think?
Shawn, I’ll watch either way, but it is unquestionable that the Red Sox are a much larger national ratings draw than the Rays. Philly/Tampa would likely produce record low World Series ratings.
I love the Red Sox because Yankees fans hate them.
I love the Red Sox because the are the Red Sox.
You just hate them because your team is a loser and we, for once, are the winners.
shawn, last year’s Red Sox/Rockies series averaged 17.16 million. A Sox/Phillies series would do better. How much better would be very dependent on how many games it went. The Cardinals/Tigers series in 2006 averaged 15.81 million. A Rays/Phillies series would be a lock to do worse than that. Which would make it the lowest rated World Series ever.
A nitpicky point: The Red Sox lost game 3 of the 2005 ALDS against Chicago, so they’re “only” 9-10 in elimination games with Francona as a manager.
Danny, that’s not that nitpicky. I was just parroting back the TBS announcers who were (obviously in retrospect) only referring to when the Red Sox had lost three games in a best of seven series. It’s still an impressive accomplishment, but the distinction is worth noting. I’ve updated the post.
Robert, pardon my ignorance, but do you mean it’s good news for FOX if Boston wins, as they are a big ratings draw than Tampa?
Ann, yes. The teams playing matter significantly for the ratings, and not just how big the local markets are, but how much national appeal the teams have. The Red Sox have a large fan base nationwide. Philly is actually a bigger local market than Boston, but the best possible outcome ratings-wise would likely have been Boston vs. Chicago Cubs in the World Series. Our feeling is that if Tampa Bay wins the ALCS and heads to the World Series the match-up would likely produce record low World Series ratings.
Gotcha. That makes perfect sense.
Hey everyone… I’ve checked the listings and haven’t found the game anywhere tonight yet.
TBS @ 8pm ET right? (so I can set my divver to “Men In Black” with no worries?)
Thanks!
Ray
p.s.: Don’t hold it against me…just the name’s Ray – Go Sox!
Ray, the official game time is 8:07p EDT, but yes, TBS (at least barring more first inning technical difficulties!).
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/schedule/ps.jsp
What’s interesting tonight is SNF features TB hosting the Seahawks. How random is that? I’m willing to bet that football far outdraws baseball in TB. (It’s a crappy game nationally, though.) I’ll be watching baseball. Game Sevens are great. Love the graphic watching the Boston ratings soar during the comeback. For those who doubt Nielsen….
Dean, yeah the Seahawks stink this year, but I think even on a national level the SNF game will probably outdraw the game 7. I wouldn’t feel that way if the Rays/Sox were playing on Fox — again, last year’s game 7 vs. Cleveland on Fox outdrew SNF by ~6 million. Game sevens always have some extra ratings juice, and I’d guess this will be TBS’ highest-rated game, but doubt it will come anywhere near last year’s numbers on Fox.
I’m sure there will be a lot of channel changing going on in Tampa Bay! Hopefully Nielsen will publish the local Tampa Bay/St. Petersburg market results on how each event did locally.
No great news for FOX.
Yep, Fox might as well show House reruns, they would probably do better.