Courtesy the Albany Times Union

(October 26, 2010) Major League Baseball and its two network postseason partners have been trumpeting the ratings for the League Championship Series, both of which went six games and showed sizeable gains.

Whether that trend will continue in the World Series, now that the top two TV draws have been eliminated, seems to be an uphill battle. What potentially could be a feel-good series between two teams — the Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants — with manageable payrolls may not spark America’s interest, even though Dallas/Fort Worth and the Bay Area are the fifth- and sixth-largest TV markets, respectively.

Fox’s six-game NLCS average rating was 5.5, a 15 percent drop from last year (6.5), but the network had the ALCS Yankees-Angels then. TBS benefitted with this year’s Yankees-Rangers ALCS, which averaged a 5.1, a 34 percent of last year’s five-game Phillies-Dodgers NLCS on TBS. Overall, LCS ratings were up 2 percent, and the average of 8.6 million viewers for the 12 telecasts was the most since 2007, when the Red Sox beat the Indians in seven games and the Rockies swept the Diamondbacks.

This year’s Series begins on Wednesday, as opposed to Saturday in the past, which could help the audience. Recent World Series have had two games scheduled for Saturday nights, the lowest-rated night of the week.

On the negative side, the NFL, which in the past has not scheduled a Sunday night game opposite Game 2 of the World Series, does have a game (Pittsburgh at New Orleans) scheduled for Sunday night, opposite Game 4 of the Rangers and Giants.

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