ALCS Draws Highest Ratings For Non-Red Sox-Yankees Series Since 2001

Tuesday, October 23rd 2007, 9:42 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ Major League Baseball and Fox Sports executives don't have to wonder about the ratings a World Series between small-market teams from Cleveland and Colorado would have drawn.

Instead, they can bask in strong viewership numbers for the American League championship series won by the Red Sox, a club from a big market with a large national following. Boston faces the Colorado Rockies in the World Series starting Wednesday.

``I don't care what sport it is. There are a few national teams in any league, and if you get a national team in a series, it naturally improves the ratings,'' Fox Sports president Ed Goren said Monday. Fox is owned by News Corp.

What also improves ratings is a long series.

Sunday night's Game 7 drew an 11.7 rating, which was 8 percent better than the 10.8 earned by last year's NLCS Game 7 between the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets. It was the highest-rated LCS game since 2004.

The series attracted an average 7.4 rating, a 37 percent increase over the 5.4 for the four-game sweep by the Detroit Tigers of the Oakland A's in last year's ALCS. It was the highest-rated ALCS not involving a Red Sox-Yankees matchup since 2001 (Yankees-Mariners).

The Rockies' NLCS sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks on Time Warner's TBS drew an average 2.8 rating for all households and a 3.3 for homes with the cable network.

When the Red Sox's 11-2 win over the Indians ended at 11:45 p.m. on Sunday night, 57 percent of households in the Boston area _ and 86 percent of homes with the TV on _ were tuned in.