Courtesy USA Today

(November 5, 2010) TV ratings for Fox's coverage of the 2010 World Series between the champion San Francisco Giants and Texas Rangers tied the record low set by the Philadelphia Phillies-Tampa Bay Rays in 2008.

That means two out of the last three Fall Classics were the lowest-rated all time. Major League Baseball's showcase event was beaten in the ratings for the first time by a regular-season NFL game telecast on NBC Sunday. The seven-game NBA Finals between the champion Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics this spring outrated this year's five-game Giants-Rangers series by 10.6 to 8.4.

What to do?

Ed Goren, vice chairman of Fox, thinks there's nothing wrong with the series as a TV property that can't be cured by a seven-game thriller. There hasn't been a seven-game Fall Classic since the Los Angeles Angels beat the Giants in 2002. It's no coincidence the two lowest-rated series only lasted five games.

"The memorable series in any sport that's best-of-seven is to get that seventh game where it's all in," Goren says. "It gets people talking, it brings in casual viewers. It becomes, in today's environment, the ultimate in must-see TV."

Giants fan Chris "Mad Dog" Russo of Sirius XM satellite radio says MLB needs to eliminate the "lousy" designated hitter to speed up game telecasts.

Some good news for viewers: Giants-Rangers had the shortest average time of game since 2006, says Matt Bourne of MLB, averaging less than 3 hours, 5 minutes. That's 25 minutes less than the average Yankees-Phillies games in 2009. The clinching Game 5 lasted only 2:32, the shortest game since Game 4 of the 1992 Atlanta Braves-Toronto Blue Jays series.

Ultimately, says media buyer Andy Donchin of Carat, ratings for the World Series come down to the teams, the competitiveness of the games, the length of the series and "what kind of drama unfolds.

"I still believe in the event," Donchin says. "A lot of what's happening is being driven by what is going on in the TV world. Fragmentation continues. There's a lot to watch. I don't put the full blame on the World Series. I attribute some of it to the way the TV world is now."

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