FOX SPORTS RATINGS

Fox Sports is beaming today with the TV ratings from Saturday night's Game 3. You might have thought the late start would drop the numbers as it did a year when the 10:06 p.m. beginning for Game 3 between the Phillies and Rays -- which resulted in a 1:50 a.m. finish was the worst rated game in World Series TV history. But obviously this Series, with the Yankees involved, is generating much more appeal.

Here is the official Fox release:

Game 3 of the 2009 WORLD SERIES averaged a 9.1/18 household rating/share with an average audience of 15.4 million viewers last night on FOX according to fast national ratings issued by Nielsen Media Research. These figures make Game 3 the highest-rated, and most-watched prime-time Saturday broadcast on any network since FOX’s NFL Playoff Game on 1/10/09 (13.8/23, 23.8 mill). It also ranks as the highest-rated and most-watched Game 3 since 2006 (10.2/17, 15.6 mill), the highest-rated Saturday World Series Game since 2005 (9.5/17), and the most-watched since 2004 (23.2 mill).


Rain had an impact on World Series Game 3 in Philadelphia for the second straight year. Last night’s 9.1/18 rating for Game 3 of Yankees-Phillies is +49% better than last year’s 6.1/13 for Rays-Phillies, and +57% in audience (15.4 mill. vs. 9.8 mill.) Last night’s +49% ratings increase is the single largest in the history of the World Series for a prime-time game.


Last night's game was delayed by rain for 80 minutes. When play got underway at 9:17pm, tune-in was a solid 6.9/13, and peaked at a 10.1/18 (17.2 mill) at 10:30 PM ET. As prime time in the Eastern and Central Time zones ended, the game was in the top of the fifth inning.


PHILADELPHIA topped all markets for Game 3 with a 36.0/57, a +28% gain over their Game 3 rating a year ago (28.2/49). NEW YORK notched a 26.1/44.

2009 WORLD SERIES TO DATE

The first three games of the Fall Classic have averaged a 10.9/19 with an average audience of 17.9 million, a +42% ratings gain and +46% audience surge over last year's first three games (7.7/14, 12.3 million.) This marks the best three-game average for the World Series since 2004's 15.0/25 (24.3 million). The World Series is a powerful force in prime time as the first three games would rank as the No. 5 show season-to-date in households, and No. 10 in Adults 18-49.