World Series ratings improve for Game 5. Small relief for the DBacks

The ratings have finally ticked up for the 2023 World Series just in time for the Arizona Diamondbacks to be knocked out of it.

The Texas Rangers’ 5-0 win over Arizona in Game 5 on Wednesday averaged 11.48 million viewers. This is not a low record, which is new for this series. It’s not a low record for Game 5. Little comfort for the Diamondbacks, who ended up up 4-1 in the best-of-seven series.

Still, it’s hard to be mad about getting out of Arizona. No one — no one — expected them to get past the first round of the playoffs, let alone the World Series.

If you want to be angry about something, be angry about it, from the New York Times: “Low ratings don’t go away without notice in cities whose teams are eliminated from the playoffs.”

Give me a break. If you want to make the World Series, WIN YOUR FREAKING GAMES, losers. Then maybe someone will take care of you, instead of looking at someone else.

Updated Nov. 1, 2023:

Progress, of a sort!

The 2023 World Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers set records for empty TV ratings on consecutive nights. With the Rangers jumping out to a 10-0 lead on Tuesday in Game 4 en route to an 11-7 victory, you might think the numbers would keep sinking.

Not much! They are still terrible. It’s not as terrible as you fear.

Fox averaged 8.48 million viewers during Game 4. It was, in fact, the lowest-rated Game 4 ever. But it didn’t break the record for the lowest rating ever. Game 3 still has that, um, difference.

The previous lowest-rated Game 4 in 2020 was between the LA Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays during the pandemic.

Oct. 31:

The TV ratings for Game 1 of the 2023 World Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Texas Rangers, an all-out extra-innings thriller, were the lowest-rated Game 1 since viewership records have been kept.

The ratings for Game 2 were the lowest ever for any World Series game, period.

Game 3 ratings were worse.

That sound you hear is all those old-school baseball purists getting excited. The “we-told-you-so” vibe is undoubtedly deafening. Join in the victory, but think about what you’re celebrating.

For the record, Game 1, played on Friday night, averaged 9.172 million viewers on Fox. Game 2, a 9-1 blowout of Arizona on Saturday, averaged 8.15 million viewers. Monday’s game, a 3-1 victory for the Rangers, averaged 8.13 million viewers.

That’s not good.

If you’re curious, the previous lowest-rated game was Game 3 of the 2020 World Series between the LA Dodgers and the Tampa Bay Rays, which was played in a “bubble” due to the pandemic.

Good problems: The DBacks won’t let Greg Schulte retire

Are Corbin Carroll and Ketel Marte not enough?

Yes, yes, we know – there aren’t enough big players on any team. No team deserves to be here; they are both wild-card teams. The playoff structure needs to be scrapped and remade in the image of, I don’t know, Ty Cobb or whoever.

It’s just funny. No LA Dodgers, New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox. No, none of the teams that won 100 games during the regular season made it to the World Series. Well good. Won’t your heart break?

Please.

Arizona Diamondbacks fans at World Series Game 1 in Texas

Arizona Diamondbacks fans at the World Series’ Game 1 turned Arlington, Texas, into a “Marte Parte” on October 27, 2023.

If watching Corbin Carroll and Ketel Marte and Adolis Garcia and Corey Seager doesn’t appeal, can you call yourself a baseball fan? Or are you a fan of how things used to be?

There is no reason to believe that the ratings for Games 4 and 5 will be better. If the series goes seven games, it gets a little bump, just because Game 7 is its own kind of magic.

But the ratings weren’t great anyway. This series is a test for baseball fans. If watching the old guard is more important to you than watching the big games, you’re going to fail.

Goodykoontz can be reached at bill.goody[email protected]. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. X, formerly known as Twitter: @goodyk.

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