Overall, TV ratings were down for the 2009 baseball season, especially late in the year when, outside of Detroit and Minnesota, there wasn’t all that much to play for. Fortunes have changed in the postseason, however:
The first round of the Major League Baseball playoffs helped TBS to its best one-week ratings in its 33-year history.
The Turner Broadcasting Systems network said it averaged almost 4.8 million viewers for each of the 13 division series playoff games, up 11 percent from last year.
Best ever for TBS? You mean to tell me that baseball outdrew the 115th showing of “Two Mules for Sister Sara” and that prime time Rock and Roll Express vs. Ivan and Nikita Koloff match in the summer of 1985? Show me the numbers or else I’m not buying it.
Overall, I think the lesson here is that, whether we care to admit it or not, having five four (oops, somehow forgot Minnesota) of the six playoff teams come from top-5 media markets certainly drives the ratings. It’s also why FOX will be privately rooting against the Phillies, who are residents of the tiniest media market (a paltry 4th in the nation!) among the remaining teams.
