This Years World Series Could be Pivital for Television

(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

Dear Bud,

      The season was memorable, but the World Series needs to change. The game has never been healthier, but not for fans. It's your job to fix it...

Does the quote above sound familiar to all you readers of Sports Illustated? If it does, you may remember it from the cover of the November 10, 2008 issue when SI baseball writer Tom Verducci wrote an article/letter to MLB commisioner Bud Selig of what and why the World Series needed to be fixed. The Philidelphia Phillies deafeated the Tampa Bay Rays in the World Series last year, but the series had many negative things hovering over it: Rain, most notably, sliding TV ratings, and the complaint of late start times getting louder.

Now, early on in the League Championship Series, and the 2009 Fall Classic weeks away, I have already figured this years series could be big for television. The series must get a marquee matchup to lure back viewers.

Ratings for 2008 series drew a record low Nielsen rating of 8.4, with game three of the series drawing a 6.1 rating, a record low for a World Series game—thanks to a start time past 10 o'clock.

The trend of dropping ratings for baseball's crown jewel, and MLB has been alarming. Regular season Game of the Week ratings on FOX finished with a record low of 1.8 this season, down 63% from a 4.9 average ratings on NBC twenty years ago.

No series has ever averaged a 20.0 rating since 1992 , when the Atlanta Braves and the Toronto Blue Jays duelled for six games. In 1980, when the Phillies played the small market Kansas City Royals, the series drew a 56 share nationally. Today, these are numbers that MLB can only dream about. Even back then, TV audiences were passionate enough to watch the games no matter who was playing.

But despite decline, this year should promise a rise in ratings from last year. This year's LCS features the Yankees, Angels, Dodgers, and Phillies—each team from large TV markets, and a helpful draw for ratings.  

In 2007, both the NBA and NHL set record lows in ratings for their championship series` but the next year, with a marquee matchup featuring the Lakers and Celtics in the NBA Finals, and the Penguins and Red Wings battling for the Stanley Cup, ratings perked for the finals of both leagues.

This year start times for the games have been moved from past 8:28 or later to 7:57. The conclusion of game five drew almost 20 million viewers and ended at 9:58 P.M. proving TV audiences will tune if they know the games are going to end a decent hour.

Whatever matchup baseball gets for it's grand finale, expect viewership and ratings to be higher. I don't expect ratings to match the ratings the World Series scored in the 1980s to the early 1990s, but I suspect the biggest audiences in recent history of the event, especially if the series goes to seven games.

So Tom Verducci's article/letter printed almost a year ago must have made an impact on Major League Baseball, and without a doubt in terms of luring back viewers for baseball's ultimate stage, MLB is moving in the right direction.

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