World Series no sweep for Fox in TV ratings

Michael Hiestand, USA TODAY Sports | USATODAY

The seven lowest-rated World Series have come in the last seven years. And after Fox didn't get much help Saturday night, its World Series looks on track to be the lowest-rated ever.

Which is weird, as there aren't any obvious explanations for this Series to set that record. And that has to be troubling for Fox, which this month signed an eight-year extension for MLB TV rights that includes the World Series. MLB doubled its overall national TV money in also re-signing TBS and ESPN.

Good timing by MLB to get those checks guaranteed to be in the mail. Fox's Game 3 on Saturday drew a 7.2 overnight, translating to 7.2% of households in 56 urban markets -- down 3% from last year. Fox really needed a ratings boost, given its first two Series games averaged 7.7% of U.S. households -- the lowest ratings ever for for the first two games of a Series.

Yes, this Series didn't have an obvious TV star, like the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox or Chicago Cubs. But it had seemed pretty mediagenic. The San Francisco Giants are from the USA's sixth-largest TV market and are known from winning the Series in 2010 and dramatically coming back to take this year's NLCS in a seventh game.

The Detroit Tigers are from the No. 11 market, but have a Triple Crown winner -- Miguel Cabrera -- and came into the Series as a giant-killer after sweeping the Yankees in the ALCS, which drew ratings on TBS that were up over last year. Although the Tigers were hardly Giant-killers in the second and third Series games -- the first Series team to be shut out back-to-back since 1966 -- at least they kept those games pretty close.

Forget theories about Hurricane Sandy-obsessed Easterners this weekend out grabbing batteries and toilet paper instead of watching TV sports. Notre Dame's win at Oklahoma on Saturday night drew a 5.9 overnight rating, which translates to 5.9% of households in the 56 urban markets measured for overnights -- the best overnight for Notre Dame on any network in six years. And Georgia upsetting Florida on CBS on Saturday drew a 4.7 overnight, up a healthy 21% from the game between the same teams last year.

MLB's regular-season local ratings have shown some strength. But when it comes to its postseason showcase, the Series could become a disappearing act.

Who's this guy? Google MLB catcher A.J. Pierzynski and you would think he's the kind of guy who would spend his off-season yelling at kids to keep off his lawn.

And definitely not the kind of guy who seems headed for a prominent TV career.

He has won various polls about disliked MLB players -- including winning the title "most hated" in getting 34% of votes from 100 MLB players in a Men's Journal survey his season. And he has drawn various criticisms over the years, such as this famed crack from Ozzie Guillen, one of his former managers: "If you play against A.J., you hate him. If you play with him, you hate him a little less."

But where's that Pierzynski now? In his second postseason as a Fox pregame analyst, he seems perfectly rational and shows plenty of on-air potential for a broadcasting career. "One of the reasons I wanted to do TV was to get more of the off-the-field me out there," he says.

When it comes to any surveys about who's disliked, he says he "always wins those. But a lot of people who vote don't even know me. It doesn't bother me like it used to. TV lets me get a different side of me out there."

As a longtime American League catcher who often faced Detroit, Pierzynski has been insightful on how to pitch the Tigers. As he has been pointed, such as saying this about San Francisco outfielder Hunter Pence: "I can't believe the Giants traded for this guy."

Pierzynski, 35, is a free-agent catcher after last season playing for the Chicago White Sox. Now, he says, "My family is cool with me keeping playing. TV is in my future plans, but I can't put a timetable on it."

NBC sold on soccer: NBC landed the live-event TV tonnage it desperately needs for its fledgling NBC Sports Network cable channel -- 380 football games.

The problem is that action is only known as "football" where the teams play. NBC will have to sell soccer. And lots of it.

Sunday, NBC Sports Chairman Mark Lazarus said coverage of soccer's English Premier League, a season running from August to May, will mean airing six games per week.

That schedule would include a Saturday midday game on NBC, NBCSN games on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays as well as two other games per week that could go on NBC cable outlets such as CNBC, MSNBC, Bravo or USA. After those 200 TV games annually, says Lazarus, the EPL's other 180 games each year will be available on "digital or pay television."

NBC, paying about $85 million annually in a three-year deal that starts next year, replaces the Fox Soccer channel, which paid about $23 million annually and sub-licensed games to ESPN. (Lazarus says NBC "doesn't plan" to sub-license any games to other TV outlets.)

Why the rights fee jump for action that drew nearly-invisible ratings on ESPN and Fox Soccer?

With TV rights to many sports already wrapped up in long-term TV deals, it's a coup for NBCSN to pick up any elite live sports action. And it's not like its bar is set really high: NBCSN's NHL games, its marquee property, last season averaged 0.2% of U.S. households.

"We have realistic expectations of the ratings," says Lazarus. "They'll be good for us at NBCSN."

Spice rack: London getting an NFL team before Los Angeles? CBS' Jason La Canfora says the NFL will have a franchise in London "in the next 10 years." ... After Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton this week publicly asked for suggestions, Fox's Jimmy Johnson on Sunday suggested the team "will be gutted and rebuilt over the next two years. Cam Newton better worry about his own job." On ESPN, Keyshawn Johnson had more philosophical advice for Newton -- "Be yourself, have fun."