NFL still rules the ratings roost

Meaningless preseason football continues to be even more attractive to the best that baseball’s regular season has to offer.

Or, to put it in current Internet lingo, NFL >>>>>>>> baseball.

Here’s the proof, from USA Today.  Saturday’s Red Sox-Yankees game on ESPN FOX drew 2.4 million viewers.  The next night, baseball’s titans had an audience of 2.8 million.

At the same time on Sunday night, the Hall of Fame game on NBC drew 4.5 million.

That’s a 7.4 percent increase over last year.

And that’s good news for us, since the broadcast included an on-air PFT plug from Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth, who said that he visits the site every day.

Man, we sure hope Cris doesn’t say something like “blowed up” this year. . . .

19 responses to “NFL still rules the ratings roost

  1. Don’t know if it is “proof”; I don’t know anyone that watches the ESPN broadcast when the local one is available.

  2. Man, we sure hope Cris doesn’t say something like “blowed up” this year. . . .
    How about “blowed up real good?”
    signed – Big Jim McBob and Billy Sol Hurok

  3. Of course the HOF game drew more viewers. It was the first football game of the year, preseason or not. Baseball’s been going on for months now.
    A fairer comparison would be the first nationally televised preseason baseball game v. the first nationally televised preseason football game. I’m pretty sure football would still win, but at least it’d be on comparable grounds.

  4. Every football game is going to beat every baseball game in ratings. There are 162 games in the baseball season and 16 in football.
    People feel the need to make room in their schedules to watch as many football games as possible since there are so few.
    And come on, it was the first football game since February and it was the ONLY football game on. Around the country there were about 13 other baseball games on. That really spreads out the audience don’t you think?

  5. How does this really mystify anyone?
    It’s because the baseball season is horribly, painfully, long, dull, drawn-out, and (almost always) completely uneventful.
    Repetitive.
    Mundane.
    Predictable.
    Watered-down.
    Dragged out.
    If you’re not at a game live, watching the World Series, or playing the game yourself, or working to cure your insomnia, then baseball is useless and dumb and irrelevant and lacking in excitement.
    In fact, baseball being SO long and SO boring is just one more good reason to expand the football season.
    Hell, bring back the XFL.
    It’s better than baseball.

  6. I hate to say it but I’d take Emmitt any day over whiny, obnoxious Collinsworth. Emmitt you could at least ignore or laugh at, Collinsworth is just very aggravating and is an inspiration to watch the game with the sound turned down.

  7. Baseball is boring to watch usually. Sorry but its true. There is only one way to fix it. MLB should make the infielders tackle the runner and tag them with the ball…or give them tasers…or make the baselines as obstacle laden as a Japanese game show…..or put hot ladies in g strings as “ball girls”…. or just go back to letting them take all the “juice/clear/cream/andro/nano/homerunfun” they can handle till they puff up like the guy at the end of “Big Trouble in Little China”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a3R0YuUjQg

  8. There are 2,430 distinct regular season baseball games per year compared to 256 distinct regular season football games.
    I would rather watch the HOF game than Yankees v Sox because live football games are more rare, especially in August. However, had the Phillies been playing at the same time I would have watched them. I almost always would watch a football game over a baseball game because the seasons are so short.
    Still, my favorite sport is baseball but would I rather watch the Chargers v the Texans (teams i have no interest in) of the Twins play the Royals (teams i have no interest in) because football is more rare.

  9. Well, American Idol > NFL, NHL, MLB, NBA, NLL, WNBA, PGA, PBA, WWE, and anything involving 70′ bike jumps at 4am on ESPN COMBINED BABY

  10. Baseball has not been the national pastime for 40 years now. I love baseball as much as anyone, but football (OUR brand) is THE Great American Game.
    Sadly, I had to watch my Sox get crushed again on Sunday night instead of the meaningless preseason game.

  11. apples and oranges. football was primetime network TV. Sunday’s baseball game was primetime cable. Saturday’s baseball game was netwrok TV with a 4pm start time

  12. Take the apples and oranges out of it and look what you have. Here’s a graph showing the decline in World Series viewership during the rise of Super Bowl viewership.
    http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t111/jimicos/ws_sb_viewers.jpg
    The Super Bowl is a cultural event, a show and an athletic contest all wrapped into one. The World Series is a reason for 7 million women to bitch about some damn reality show being moved to a different slot.

  13. Cris Collinsworth USED to be good until his success went to his head, now he is just an arrogant, unbearable SOB. MEH MEH I’M CRIS COLLINSWORTH MEH

  14. Baseball sucks . Watch a 4 hour game and its 0-0 in the 8th . I rather be mauled by one of Mike Vicks pits then watch regular season baseball reguardless of the teams playing . Hell a scrimmage is better than baseball .
    nfl is 1
    college football is 2
    men college hoops is 3
    hockey is 4
    baseball is 5

  15. I hate seeing pre-season games referred to as “meaningless”. It’s the first (and often, only) chance those if us who follow the draft have to see those rookies we’ve invested so much in following. Of course, TV broadcasts DO treat the games – and those rookies – as “meaningless” by making the guys in the broadcast booth and whoever they’re superficially interviewing the stars of the show.
    The NBC broadcast of the HoF game was a perfect example of how horrible TV “coverage” has become. There are a lot of questions about both those teams and a lot of hopeful rookies, but except for superficially talking the VY storyline to death, the guys in the booth and the director appeared to lose all interest in the game after the first quarter.

  16. SteeltownPride:
    “I rather be mauled by one of Mike Vicks pits then watch regular season baseball reguardless of the teams playing .”
    That line almost made me spit my drink. But yeah baseball does suck.

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