Sports TV
World Series: All's well that ends well
By Toni Fitzgerald
Oct 30, 2007 - 7:30:33 AM

In an era of ever-declining sports viewership, where the NBA and NHL finals have dipped to historic lows and even long-rising NASCAR seems to have stalled, Major League Baseball may never see another World Series like 2004, when an average 25 million viewers per game saw the Boston Red Sox win their first championship in 86 years.

But while this year’s ratings for Boston’s second Series victory in four years weren’t spectacular, they were a good deal better than last year, and Fox will be very happy with that.

The Red Sox’ four-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies ended Sunday night with a series-best 20.9 million total viewers, up 30 percent from last year’s 16.1 million for Game Four, according to Nielsen numbers released yesterday by Fox.

The four-game series averaged 17.1 million total viewers, 8 percent better than last year’s all-time low 15.8 million, and a 10.6 household rating and 18 share, 5 percent better than last year’s St. Louis Cardinals-Detroit Tigers matchup.

That’s nowhere near the 15.8 household rating that Boston’s 2004 victory over the Cardinals averaged, and in fact it ranks second-worst among all Series since Nielsen began measurements in 1968.

That might seem disappointing, considering how popular the Red Sox are compared with recent Series winners like the Chicago White Sox and Anaheim Angels. No doubt Boston’s easy sweep, which also resulted in lower ad revenue for Fox because the Series went just four games, and the Rockies’ limited national following hurt the Series.

But as this digital video recorder-ravaged season has proven, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to compare TV ratings to prior years, as viewers are drawn away by new media like online video, sophisticated video games and even mobile phone entertainment content.

Any show or sporting even that demonstrates a lift over the previous year has to be considered a success, no matter where it ranks historically. And among Fox’s target young adult viewers, the World Series managed to perform much better than last year.

Among adults 18-49, the four-game series rose 14 percent over last year, from a 4.9 to a 5.6, as Fox won every night in that demo. Among 18-34s, it was up 18 percent, from a 3.0 to a 4.6, while men 18-49 and men 18-34 both posted year-to-year gains of at least 8 percent.

That’s a huge boost for Fox, which traditionally ends the fall in fourth place and then counts on “American Idol” to push it out of the basement come January. “Idol” lost a bit of its ratings punch at the end of last year, but with the stronger 2007 Series, it won’t need to do nearly as much heavy lifting this spring.