Baseball Does Poorly in TV Ratings Game

The Baseball Network concept of regionalized playoff telecasts remains a critical bomb, but the viewing public seems a lot more willing to forgive than scribes or telecasters, though not completely.

Three of the games in the league championship series broadcast last week landed in the top 14 of the most widely viewed shows of the week, and Tuesday’s Cleveland-Seattle finale may have done impressive business.

ABC’s telecasts last Tuesday and Wednesday were No. 1 on their respective nights, and eighth and 14th in the overall weekly ratings. Tuesday’s Indians-Mariners sixth game, which did a 15.0 national rating with a 24 share of the audience, probably will reach next week’s top 20.

And yet, the six-game average of 13.1/22 is the second-lowest prime-time average in the 26-year history of league championship series telecasts, placing just ahead of the 12.7 average for CBS in 1992. It’s enough to make you wonder just how TBN is going to deliver the 20 rating it promised advertisers for the World Series.

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Another addendum to that bogus USA Today story from Tuesday, declaring that baseball, Fox and CBS had hooked up on a four-year telecast contract:

Given the tremendous losses CBS suffered during its last foray with baseball, and what the owners did to ABC and NBC with the Baseball Network travesty, could anyone in their right mind expect either CBS or Fox to sign a deal before the players and owners reach a labor agreement?

Yes, network executives can be foolish at times, but either CBS Sports chief David Kenin or his Fox counterpart, David Hill, deserve to be unemployed if they commit their network’s money and programming time to baseball before receiving ironclad assurances that the game’s players will be on the field for the long term.