Random (yet great) Sports Fact of the Day: 53.9 Million

We all know baseball as "America's Past time". however recent TV ratings could be signs of a paradigm shift. Last week's NFC Championship game between the Saints and the Vikings racked up an incredible average of 53.9 million viewers. That is the most for an NFC Championship game since the 49ers and the Cowboys dueled it out in 1982. That is also the same game of the iconic photo of the 49ers Dwight Clark making "The Catch".

That was a game featuring one team that may or may not play IN the Super Bowl, while the other may or may not even win the Super Bowl. The World Series was a show-down between two big market teams and the Yankees may have one of the most recognizable logos in all of sports. The World Series crowns a champion for Americas "favorite" sport. The World Series averaged 19.1 million viewers per game.

There are a couple of factors that could explain why the World Series had such a low average viewership, in comparison to the NFC Championship game.
1. The World Series is just that, a series of games. Not everyone is a huge baseball fan and the winner is not going to be decided between games 1-3, so people may not have watched until game 4, which averaged 22.8 million viewers.
2. Both teams were on the East coast and less than a three hour drive from each city. The national interest may just not have been there.
3. People outside of a 35 mile radius of Philadelphia, hate Philadelphia. Philly has a die-hard fan base and a larger crowd of haters. Plus, most of the country probably thought that the Yankees were going to win anyway.
4. Baseball needs to get on top of starting times, but more importantly ending times. I'm a young guy without a career, so I have no problem staying up until 1:30 A.M. to watch my beloved Phillies. However, most guys with kids and a career cannot do that. The west coast probably did not mind the games starting at 6 pm and ending at 10:30, but they did not have as huge a rooting interest as the east coast did.

There could certainly be a few more points of interest, but I think you get the point. I love baseball but the NFL has this country by the jugular and I love it.