The Yankees and Phillies are doing their part to ensure Fox ends up with its Best. Fall. Ever.
Sunday’s fourth game of the World Series attracted 22.8 million viewers, soaring 47 percent above last year’s Game Four. It was the biggest audience for a series game in five years.
Baseball also did well in the key demo of adults 18-49, with early reports indicating Sunday’s game soared above a 7 rating in the demo. Wowza, indeed.
With the Yanks now up 3-1, Fox isn’t completely out of the woods yet. The network really needs the Phillies to step up and win Game Five in order to extend the Series to at least six games. That’s usually been considered the benchmark number of games Fox needs to turn a profit on the Fall Classic.
Still, no matter what happens, this is shaping up to be quite a fall for Fox. The network went into the Series as the No. 1 broadcaster in adults 18-49 and will emerge even more solidly in first. If it can hold on to that position headed into January, when "American Idol" returns, you can basically consider the season over in terms of the ratings race.
Meanwhile, in other ratings news, CBS’s "Three Rivers" once again posted a weak 1.7/4 in the demo. That, along with a great baseball game, sent the Eye’s "Cold Case" to its lowest-ever demo telecast (1.6/4).
Let’s just make this clear now, before some other blogger jumps the gun: If logic and past history are any guide, CBS will not order more episodes of "Three Rivers." It’s still walking, but is, for all intents and purposes, dead.
The only real question is whether the Eye decides to keep airing the existing episodes during sweeps or pulls them for repeats of its more successful dramas.