Major League Baseball has announced it's 2022 postseason schedule. Below us a link to that schedule:
MLB announces 2022 playoff schedule .
I'm starting this thread to note three things about the World Series schedule which actually are TV-related:
First, for the first time that I can recall (and probably the first time since the early years of the Fall Classic), no World Series games are scheduled to played on a Sunday. And that's deliberate to avoid conflict with the NFL.
Had there been a Sunday game of the World Series this year, an afternoon game (4:35 P.M. EDT start) on Fox (there hasn't been a World Series matinee since 1987) would have gone head-to-head with regional NFL games on CBS, including games of hometown teams in perhaps as many as a half dozen cities.
Most likely, a Sunday game in the World Series would have been in prime-time, where it would have gone head-to-head against NBC's "NFL Sunday Night Football", which has been the most popular series on TV over the past decade.
There was a time in the early years that NBC carried "Sunday Night Football" that an NFL game wouldn't be scheduled for the Sunday when the World Series was underway. No more. in recent years, "SNF" has drawn more viewers than the World Series. Obviously, MLB and Fox don't want to face this ratings juggernaut.
The schedule does list Game 3 as being on Monday, October 31st. There is an NFL game that night, with Cleveland hosting Cincinnati, scheduled for 8:15 P.M. EDT. Even after moving to ESPN some years back, "NFL Monday Night Football" usually beats out all broadcast network programs in it's timeslot.
The schedule didn't list any starting times, so I wonder: Could Game 3 of the World Series on Monday, October 31st start at 5:05 P.M. EDT (with Fox's pregame show starting at 4:30 P.M. EDT) to (barring extra innings or a rain delay) avoid conflict with the NFL?
Many viewers on the East Coast may miss at least the beginning of the game while many on the West Coast might not get to see any part of the telecast live. But a Monday World Series game at 5:05 P.M. EDT may actually draw more viewers than a Monday World Series game starting at 7:50, 8:05, or 8:20 P.M. EDT.
One other note: This apparently will be the first World Series to be played entirely during the November ratings "sweeps", which I think this year run from Thursday, October 27th through Wednesday, November 23rd. I believe the November sweeps nowadays end the night before Thanksgiving to avoid counting the Thanksgiving weekend when TV viewing patterns are severely disrupted by people travelling to visit family and friends.
MLB announces 2022 playoff schedule .
I'm starting this thread to note three things about the World Series schedule which actually are TV-related:
First, for the first time that I can recall (and probably the first time since the early years of the Fall Classic), no World Series games are scheduled to played on a Sunday. And that's deliberate to avoid conflict with the NFL.
Had there been a Sunday game of the World Series this year, an afternoon game (4:35 P.M. EDT start) on Fox (there hasn't been a World Series matinee since 1987) would have gone head-to-head with regional NFL games on CBS, including games of hometown teams in perhaps as many as a half dozen cities.
Most likely, a Sunday game in the World Series would have been in prime-time, where it would have gone head-to-head against NBC's "NFL Sunday Night Football", which has been the most popular series on TV over the past decade.
There was a time in the early years that NBC carried "Sunday Night Football" that an NFL game wouldn't be scheduled for the Sunday when the World Series was underway. No more. in recent years, "SNF" has drawn more viewers than the World Series. Obviously, MLB and Fox don't want to face this ratings juggernaut.
The schedule does list Game 3 as being on Monday, October 31st. There is an NFL game that night, with Cleveland hosting Cincinnati, scheduled for 8:15 P.M. EDT. Even after moving to ESPN some years back, "NFL Monday Night Football" usually beats out all broadcast network programs in it's timeslot.
The schedule didn't list any starting times, so I wonder: Could Game 3 of the World Series on Monday, October 31st start at 5:05 P.M. EDT (with Fox's pregame show starting at 4:30 P.M. EDT) to (barring extra innings or a rain delay) avoid conflict with the NFL?
Many viewers on the East Coast may miss at least the beginning of the game while many on the West Coast might not get to see any part of the telecast live. But a Monday World Series game at 5:05 P.M. EDT may actually draw more viewers than a Monday World Series game starting at 7:50, 8:05, or 8:20 P.M. EDT.
One other note: This apparently will be the first World Series to be played entirely during the November ratings "sweeps", which I think this year run from Thursday, October 27th through Wednesday, November 23rd. I believe the November sweeps nowadays end the night before Thanksgiving to avoid counting the Thanksgiving weekend when TV viewing patterns are severely disrupted by people travelling to visit family and friends.
