Ratings: World Series Rises With Game 4 No-Hitter

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://tvline.com/2022/11/03/tv-ratings-world-series-astros-no-hitter/

In the latest TV ratings, Fox’s broadcast of the World Series Game 4, in which four Astros pitchers collaborated on the second no-hitter in the Fall Classic’s history, averaged 10 million viewers and a 2.3 demo rating, marking the best preliminary numbers for the Houston/Philly series.

https://tvline.com/lists/cancelled-.../03/tv-ratings-world-series-astros-no-hitter/

Interestingly, the historic game’s audience peaked during the 9 o’clock (ET) hour, then successively dipped during the 10:00 and 10:30 half-hours.

 

[Don CT]

Unless it's a single pitcher no hitter it's pointless.

 

[CTListener]

Baseball is killing itself with analytics-driven reliance on home runs, walks and strikeouts, and the beancounter-driven babying of pitchers. The game is becoming unwatchable even to longtime fans and is unlikely to attract many new ones in its current form. Eliminating the shift and installing a pitch clock won't help. Four of the six World Series games had at least 20 strikeouts. That's an awful lot of pitch-and-catch between sporadic bursts of action.

 

[tbolt909]

Unless it's a single pitcher no hitter it's pointless.

Baseball is killing itself with analytics-driven reliance on home runs, walks and strikeouts, and the beancounter-driven babying of pitchers. The game is becoming unwatchable even to longtime fans and is unlikely to attract many new ones in its current form. Eliminating the shift and installing a pitch clock won't help. Four of the six World Series games had at least 20 strikeouts. That's an awful lot of pitch-and-catch between sporadic bursts of action.

A no-hitter with multiple pitchers still counts, but agreed it's not like Don Larsen's perfect game. The excitement of a no hitter is diminished when the bullpen takes over.

Baseball has some problems. The overemphasis on home runs is one. Many teams cannot put the ball in play. The Astros are an exception and their pitching was dominant. It was good to see Dusty Baker win the championship. He's a class act...

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

I thought ratings would have gone up the closer the game got to the 9th inning.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

I thought ratings would have gone up the closer the game got to the 9th inning.

Not generally.

Five of the six games in this year's World Series had one of two outcomes, either one of which tends towards reduced ratings late in the game:
- Three games had one team leading by 5-0 or larger margin after 5 innings
- Two games ended after midnight ET (one went to extra innings). Television viewing falls rapidly after 10pm. By midnight about 95% of households have turned off the TV for the night.

It turned out that the ratings for the World Series as a whole this year were the 2nd lowest ever, with the 2020 series being the worst.