Over the course of the past few months, there have been some debate as to what is causing the decline in NFL television ratings. There have been many different scenarios discussed from the presidential election to player’s protesting to the decline in the overall product on the field. One factor that hasn’t been discussed at length has been an renewed national interest in baseball.
According to Forbes, most of the MLB teams saw an increase in their television ratings over the past season. The Division Series saw record high ratings for Fox Sports One. Now, with baseball having momentum and football seemingly having lost some of its foothold on the American consciousness, Sports TV Ratings reports that the World Series had much higher ratings than last night’s Cowboys-Redskins game.
The Chicago Cubs win over the Cleveland Indians in Game 5 drew a massive 15.3 overnight rating, easily beating out the the Eagles-Cowboys Sunday Night Football contest which drew an 11.6 overnight rating,
The Dallas Cowboys win over the Philadelphia Eagles in overtimes drew an 11.6 overnight rating, down 19 percent versus last year’s Broncos-Packers week 8 game that scored a 14.3 overnight rating.
The World Series outdrew the NFL despite it being a divisional match-up featuring the Dallas Cowboys. The World Series outdrew the NFL despite the game having gone into overtime.
This is a good sign for Major League Baseball and the World Series. Only time will tell if these ratings are being driven by renewed interest in baseball or interest in seeing the Cleveland Indians or Chicago Cubs win their first World Series in decades.
