I'm courting trouble here after the fine whine I uncorked last night about my distaste for night football, but I'm going to say something else that will make all male fans of this blog question my gender and ask if I buy my Summer's Eve in Spring Fresh or Potpourri scents:Why are networks still scared of the World Series?
Except for a couple of shows, everything is a rerun tonight, supposedly because the competition from what was going to be Game 5 (but now is Game 4 because of last night's rainout) was going to be too fierce. But the ratings give a different picture.
Looking at the overnight ratings from Tuesday night, you can see that Game 3, in which the Cardinals beat the Tigers 5-0, got smoked by Dancing with the Stars. The game got a 9.2/14, while Dancing got a 13.6/20. Overall, FOX came in second to ABC for the night, even though the networks tied in the 18-49 demo.
Grey's Anatomy and CSI routinely pull in ratings that are even better than Danicing's on a weekly basis. Grey's especially seems like it would be able to retain that audience even against an Game 4 or 5 of an exciting, tension-building series, because it appeals to a completely different audience than the World Series would.
Why do you think the networks still program reruns opposite the World Series? Let me know in the comments.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-26-2006 @ 8:22PM
Jamie said...
Networks have to rerun shows atsome point. the World Series is as good an excuse as any.
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10-26-2006 @ 9:21PM
Steve said...
What Jamie said. November Sweeps start next week, so they probably already want to fit in a rerun tonight before they air at least four new episodes in a row next month. Having a rerun tonight means an extra showing in December, for instance.
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10-26-2006 @ 9:35PM
al said...
if you recall back in 03' when the sox/yanks and cubs/marlins were battling, baseball ratings were kicking the crap out of the competition and when the sox won it all ratings were high as well, so i'm thinking that the networks were worried if there was a hot matchup in the world series that would take a chunk of their audience away, plus networks like to show repeats once a month, scratch that, they'll show repeats until people start complaining(see Lost), and its a week before sweeps so why blow a fresh episode a week before, to quote Toby Flenderson from "the office" do you want me to keep going, or should you just reply "why am I the way i am?"
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10-26-2006 @ 9:35PM
Diane said...
I am HUGELY pissed off. I watch Grey's Anatomy weekly - the only show I watch religiously and sat down to watch episode 6 tonight when lo and behold, it was episode 1 of Season 3.
Do you know if the next episode will air properly next week?? I hate baseball!!!!!
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10-26-2006 @ 10:30PM
Carissa said...
I just have to say, I hate sports on tv in general. Wimbledon and the US Open mess with my soaps, Monday night football used to mess with the start of a show on ABC, and the world series messes with Fox, which used to be okay, because their shows sucked. Well, they don't suck any more and taking off the shows for this period of time does. I have to suffer through the Olympics every two years now because they split the summer and winter games, isn't that enough???
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10-26-2006 @ 11:52PM
erroneous_nick said...
I couldn't say why the networks program reruns against any sports on tv. On those nights, I just don't watch anything at all. Watching the occasional football game is fun, but I've never understood the fanaticism of some viewers. It's like watching the same play over and over again, only with different actors and a slightly different outcome. I would love to see first-run episodes on opposite sports and it would be great to show sports on the sports networks so we didn't have to wait on our new Fox episodes. I mean, when was the last time ESPN aired House?
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10-27-2006 @ 12:32AM
Tucker said...
Honestly, this is PRECISELY why they do this. You've got a couple-week window when you have a *potentially* enormous audience tuning out, switching days, etc.
And, yeah, why not? It's been a good two months or month-and-a-half-or-so since some stuff debuted, so why not leave a little time to do the inevitable schedule shifting? Heck, you posted earlier today about NBC's new Thursday night - got to be some point in there where they take the week to move the stuff around.
It sucks, sure, but let's be honest - a few weeks off isn't as bad as waiting all summer (and at the same time, three months off is better than erratic airings *cough*LOST*cough*).
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10-27-2006 @ 8:41AM
Jeff said...
Baseball sucks...period. Too many games and the games take too long to play. TV has actually reuined all sports that are broadcasted. When I played the game, it never went three hours long unless it was extra, extra innings. My fav sport is football because it is actually a "team" sport. Eleven guys vs eleven guys, each one having to do something EVERY PLAY. Not just waiting around in the outfield picking grass. But TV has screwed up football too. I actually WENT to one NFL game and there are so many TV time outs and time wasted just sitting around that you actually don't see much "playing" of the game. Gimme a game with no commercials and no electricity. Old school style where you don't have guys in the sky boxes radio in plays or sending prints of the line formations down to the sidelines to be studied. Get out there, get dirty, play some damn football.
I'm sorry, what was the original question?
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10-27-2006 @ 9:20AM
Chris said...
um... okay. first off, this isn't a baseball hatred forum. there are many of us who love baseball and watch it. second, last night was the rain delay game 4. game 5 isn't until tonight, and it was scheduled that way. so the networks didn't decide to run reruns at the last minute. they were scheduled that way.
if you don't like baseball or sports on television, don't watch them.
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10-27-2006 @ 9:40AM
Joel Keller said...
Chris, what did I say above that told you that I didn't know that last night was supposed to be game 5 instead of game 4?
Here's what I said:
"Except for a couple of shows, everything is a rerun tonight, supposedly because the competition from what was going to be Game 5 (but now is Game 4 because of last night's rainout) was going to be too fierce."
And... I didn't say I wasn't watching the game last night. In fact, after Ugly Betty was over (I review it for the site), I watched the game until the end. Pretty good game.
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10-27-2006 @ 11:12AM
chris said...
i think game 5 has always been scheduled for tonight. game 4 was scheduled for wednesday but got moved to thursday. fox was expected to roll out 'Til Death and Happy Hour (i only know from looking at my DVR schedule, i don't watch them) last night, but moved it to next week because of the rain delay.
therefore, i feel your post is somewhat misleading, for NBC scheduled reruns of Earl & The Office (among others on other networks) before they knew there would be a game.
the line "if you don't like baseball or sports on television, don't watch them" was directed at other commenters on this post. i should have made that more clear. sorry
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