Playoffs Great for Fox

The ratings thus far have been great for Fox – I predict the World Series will be less so. The pairing of the Yankees and the Marlins is the worst possible scenario of the original eight teams that began the playoffs: the world is absolutely fed up with the disgusting Yankees, and no one on earth gives a rat’s scrotum about the Marlins:

During a day of nail-biting for Yankee and Red Sox fans Thursday, Fox Sports executives were busy touting another round of stellar postseason baseball ratings while arguing that the Florida Marlins will be a fabulous draw in the World Series [liars].

Wednesday night’s Game 7 of the National League Championship Series, in which the Marlins broke Chicago Cubs fans’ hearts and secured the NL berth in the fall classic, drew 26.5 million viewers and a 10.1 rating/27 share among adults 18-49, making it the most-watched game of any League Championship Series in more than 10 years.

Fox’s heat with the LCS has thrown its rivals into a tizzy as many of their fledgling shows have been unable to gain traction against the baseball juggernaut.

….In a report outlining what its researchers saw as the most popular scenarios for the World Series, media buying firm Initiative predicted a Cubs-Red Sox series and Cubs-Yankees series would have been “home runs.”

Initiative pegged a Marlins-Red Sox matchup at a respectable 14.1/23 but lamented that much of the interest would be limited to the East Coast. A Yankees-Marlins World Series would do much worse, a 12.4/21, equaling the dismal rating Fox earned in 2000 with an all-New York matchup, but still better than last year, the agency predicted.

“Not having the third-largest market and one of the most storied franchises in sports — those lovable losers Cubs — in is going to divert national attention away from the series to some degree,” said Tim Spengler, Initiative’s executive vp national broadcast. [Hollywood Reporter]

But that’s the beauty of sports: you can’t control the outcome, it’s real and dramatic as hell. Just ask Cubs and Sox fans.

I am delighted baseball – regardless of the teams – is back as a “success” on TV. It is the king of all sports.