On Monday night, Cliff Lee delivered an absolutely dominant performance in Yankee Stadium, and the Rangers took a 2-1 lead in their first-ever ALCS appearance. Also on Monday night, the Titans and Jaguars played a regular-season game that was essentially a non-contest by halftime. More people watched the latter. From CNBC's Darren Rovell:
NFL Trumps MLB Playoffs In Ratings Without Really Trying
Horrific Monday Night Football game OUTRATES Game 3 of ALCS. MNF gets 7.2 overnight on ESPN. Yanks-Rangers gets 6.5 on TBS
David Arnott of our own Rufus On Fire points out that some of this likely has to do with the networks at play here -- ESPN is a sporting behemoth, and TBS, even after its massive re-branding efforts of the past few years, isn't so much. In fact, until 2005, TBS programming was 100% comprised of a) Braves games, and b) the episode of Fresh Prince in which Uncle Phil shows Will how to hustle billiards. Just that episode, over and over.
Still, though, it must kind of smart for an NFL regular-season rout to out-rate an ALCS game. In light of these auspicious numbers, the NFL ought to re-tool its programming to compete with Major League Baseball next season:
April 2, 2011
MLB: Diamondbacks at Rockies.
NFL: For three hours, Drew Brees smiles at the camera while idly tossing a football to himself, and never drops it, not even once.
Projected ratings winner: NFL
April 3, 2011
MLB: Red Sox at Rangers.
NFL: Andre Johnson and Matt Schaub play Connect Four in silence. One of them is wearing a funny hat!
Projected ratings winner: NFL
April 6, 2011
MLB: Indians at Mariners.
NFL: Camera pointed at a man who is on the phone talking to another man who is watching a four-year-old recording of an NFL game through his neighbor's living room window. The first man phrases everything in the form of a question. The second man is also sort of half-watching an episode of According To Jim. Also, both men are named Jim.
Projected ratings winner: NFL
April 9, 2011
MLB: Astros at Mets.
NFL: Matt Millen explains to us why football is a metaphor for life. He sort of gets lost along the way, and ends up arguing that football is a metaphor for Foosball. After two hours, it grows apparent that he is mistaking Foosball for some sort of hybrid between skee-ball and Candy Land that doesn't actually exist.
Projected ratings winner: NFL
April 22, 2011
MLB: Dodgers at Cubs.
NFL: C.J. Spiller stars in the reality contest show "Umbrella," in which he has to carry an umbrella around with him at all times. If he forgets to bring his umbrella with him, it's not really a big deal, he can just go back and get it. But if he says, "nah, I'll probably just leave that umbrella where it is," or if he refers to the umbrella as a parasol, he loses. The prize is a $10 gift card to Carl's Jr. He doesn't live near a Carl's Jr.
Projected ratings winner: NFL
And that’s just for April! There is a chance, however, that the 2011 NFL season will be canceled due to lockout, and they’ll need to come up with other means of winning the ratings war come World Series time. Someone should ask, I don’t know, Jeff Saturday if he knows how to play the harmonica.
