Posted May 18, 200915 yr Major League Baseball is going to turn back the clock for the start of World Series games this season. The network said on Monday that weeknight games will begin at 7:57 p.m. ET. The start of Saturday night games could be even earlier, and Sunday games will continue to begin following the conclusion of the network's NFL coverage. "Postseason games on Fox the last couple years have been running longer. This will move the conclusions of the games back to between 11 and 11:30 p.m. Eastern time, which we think is optimum," Fox spokesman Lou D'Ermilio said. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4174213 took them long enough. between the midnight finishes and the low ratings, fox finally got a clue and decided that starting the games just before 8, something i have been saying on various mediums for years, as many people will likely be channel flipping at 7:58-ish before the prime time shows begin. and plus, unless the game is running four hours, most children will get to see the end of the game and will probably create more baseball fans. something tells me that the fox execs saw the high ratings from the phillies clincher last year (it was the end of a suspended game 5) which ended at 10 et, and saw people would watch the game if 1. they can see the end and 2. if it wasn't bogged down with pregame filler so much that they can watch another show in the 8 et hour. btw, for any west coast people out there, tape/dvr it, and the ending is more interesting anyway, plus, they can watch their shows after the game is over.
May 18, 200915 yr This may come as shock to many on the east coast but networks schedule the games at the time they can get the most viewers or in other words they try to schedule games at the most fan friendly times taking into account the entire country. The more people view the more they can charge for ads.
May 18, 200915 yr Author i think a 8 pm first pitch is probably the best time to start the games during the week. anything before 7:30 et is pretty much out of the question i think, as it starts to cut into local affiliate time. i hope there is a 5-ish et start for a saturday game though, so at least we have one game during the day. that, i think is the peak tv viewing time on saturdays, as it's the transition period between a saturday outside and a saturday night out, and it can compete with college football. it helps fox in ratings; do you ever wonder why most networks show repeats on saturday nights? sundays i think are a lost cause as long as the world series is on a network where the nfl is shown. combine the nfl post game show with mlb pregame to start the game as soon as you can, and i won't complain.
May 19, 200915 yr They never would have had to worry about this if it wasn't for the endless pregame stuff...
May 19, 200915 yr Author They never would have had to worry about this if it wasn't for the endless pregame stuff... exactly. i don't want to tune into a game at 8 pm just to watch 30 minutes of talking heads repeating what we heard elsewhere, when i could be watching a high rated show on another network and be back before the game starts. and they keep going on and on and on...the people change the channel since it never ends, thus low ratings.
May 19, 200915 yr I never said it was an easy situation for MLB and I certainly understand why they do it like they do, but 8PM is still ridiculous for east coast fans -- first it's only a half hour change which doesn't really do anything, second by starting games that late on the east coast they lose a substantial block of casual viewers. The northeast is home to the biggest baseball markets in the country and by starting games this late they're losing a lot viewership there.
May 19, 200915 yr I never said it was an easy situation for MLB and I certainly understand why they do it like they do, but 8PM is still ridiculous for east coast fans -- first it's only a half hour change which doesn't really do anything, second by starting games that late on the east coast they lose a substantial block of casual viewers. The northeast is home to the biggest baseball markets in the country and by starting games this late they're losing a lot viewership there. What are you worried about the Mets won't be playing :thumbup Hell start them at 7PM like all the rest of the games, 10 if its on the west coast.
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