Subway Series Strikes Out
N E W Y O R K, Oct. 28 -- This Subway Series drew only token viewership.
Fox Sports’ telecasts of the New York Yankees’ five-game victoryover the cross-city Mets produced the lowest-rated World Series inhistory, drawing big audiences in the Big Apple but in few othermajor TV markets.
The games averaged a 12.4 national rating and 21 share, down22.5 percent from last year and 12 percent from 1998’s previousrecord low.
Both the rating and share are less than half of what they werein 1986, the last time the Mets played in the World Series. Eachrating point represents a little more than 1 million televisionhouseholds; share is the percentage of in-use TVs tuned to aprogram.
Fox: Maybe Numbers Are Wrong
“Our research people are going to have to take a look and seeif they can come up with some explanations,” Fox Sports presidentEd Goren said Friday. “I’m guessing maybe there’s something wrongwith the national Nielsen sampling. This has been a difficult yearfor a lot of us.”
Indeed.
The trend of sinking ratings hasn’t discriminated much by sportor network this year. NBC’s coverage of the Summer Games drew thelowest ratings for a Summer or Winter Olympics since 1968. The NCAAmen’s college basketball title game dropped 18 percent from a yearago, which was the previous low since CBS started airing the eventin 1982. The All-Star games for the NBA and baseball were theworst-rated ever.
One notable exception is the Super Bowl, which continues toconsistently draw ratings above 40.
The World Series’ showing, which industry analysts say alsocould be traced to lengthy games and competition from fall TVseason premieres pushed back by the Sydney Olympics, forced Fox toshow “make-goods”—”free” commercials to make sure sponsors’messages reach as many viewers as were paid for.
But the bottom line shouldn’t be affected, the network said.
