Chicago Cubs dugout, Game 6 of 2016 World Series obama
It’s good to have sports rights — it’s great if that investment results in instant classic, full-length championship series.
Fox just jumped from fourth to first in terms of fall season TV ratings rankings to-date, according to Nielsen’s “most current” metric, which counts one-week’s worth of delayed viewing where available. That’s thanks almost solely to the strong 2016 World Series and some NFL Sunday afternoon overruns. And yes, “Empire” still does very well for the network on Wednesdays.
Still, this is the first time Fox has been No. 1 in the fall in five years. Whether or not this will last is a whole other conversation, however. Fortunately, Fox will get another huge boost from Super Bowl LI in February — the big game is always the largest telecast of the year.
For now, here are the broadcast rankings to-date:
1. Fox: 2.8 rating/10 share (That’s +17 percent from this point last year)
2. NBC: 2.6/9 (-10 percent)
3. CBS: 2.2/8 (-19 percent)
4. ABC: 2.0/7 (-17 percent)
In terms of just live viewing, which obviously accounts for the vast majority of sports tune-in, Fox’s World Series Game 7 alone scored north of 40 million total viewers — that’s the most for any baseball game in 25 years.
#FlyTheW: Stars Who Are Long-Suffering Chicago Cubs Fans (Photos)
The Chicago Cubs are tied 1-1 in the Best of 7 National League Championship Series against the LA Dodgers. If the Cubs win, they will break a curse and go to the World Series for the first time since a smelly goat was denied entry to Wrigley Field in 1945.
Bill Murray A favorite subject of the cameras at Wrigley Field, Bill Murray can often be seen frowning in concentration at various Cubs games. Most recently seen: gamely pounding back beer for the cameras in Game 1 of the NLCS series against the Dodgers.
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Eddie Vedder The Pearl Jam frontman is such a die-hard Cubbies fan, he even wrote a song ("All the Way") for them, and announced Pearl Jam would no longer be touring in October, just in case the Cubs made it to the postseason.
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John Cusack The Chicago native has been a lifelong Cubs fan and a fixture at Wrigley Field for about as long, and when asked tough questions about his team, knows all the answers.
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Hillary Clinton From wearing Cubs gear to attending games to teaming up with players for charity, the Chicago native and maybe first female President of the United States is a well-documented fan, who even got her own personalized jersey for her 50th birthday.
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Billy Corgan The Smashing Pumpkins lead singer and Chicago native is such a dedicated Cubs fan that he has criticized fellow rocker Eddie Vedder for not being a good fan ... those sound like fighting words.
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Nick Offerman ".@Cubs I love you," the "Parks and Rec" star tweeted last week. "#FlyTheW" The official team account replied back "And we love you."
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Jake Johnson The "New Girl" star has live-tweeted Cubs games, saying during the NLDS series-clinching game against the Giants, "I honestly thought I was having a mild heart attack in the bottom of the 9th. I'm not sure I can survive this October."
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Gary Sinise The "CSI: New York" star is a Chicago native so naturally a longtime Cubs fan. He, like many of his fellow famous fans, has partaken in leading the crowd in singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the 7th inning stretch.
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The Chicago Cubs have some of the most loyal fans around, including Hillary Clinton, Bill Murray and John Cusack among the most famous
The Chicago Cubs are tied 1-1 in the Best of 7 National League Championship Series against the LA Dodgers. If the Cubs win, they will break a curse and go to the World Series for the first time since a smelly goat was denied entry to Wrigley Field in 1945.