World Series Game 2 Ratings Reflect Nation's Aversion To Matt Cain's Face

Ratings are stupid. Ratings don't matter. To us, anyway. As long as baseball stays on TV, I don't care how many other people are watching it with me. But while ratings are completely irrelevant to us as fans, they do sometimes contain a little interesting information. For example, last night, Game 2 of the World Series struggled to outdraw $#*! My Dad Says on CBS. That's '$#*!' instead of 'Shit' because 'Shit' would actually be funny.

FOX started the night in first overall with an estimated 12.32 million viewers for the start of the Rangers-Giants showdown, finishing second in the demo with a 3.4 rating. CBS topped the demo and finished second overall with "The Big Bang Theory" (12.8 million and a 4.1 demo rating) and "$#*! My Dad Says" (10.82 million and a 3.1 demo rating).

More interesting to me than the Game 2 ratings, however, are how the Game 2 ratings compare to the Game 1 ratings. Game 2 evidently drew an average of 12.05 million viewers. Game 1 drew an average of 14.47 million viewers. That's a 16.7% decrease from Wednesday to Thursday, and based on the Wikipedia World Series ratings page (which I admit may be wrong), I think that may be the biggest Game 1 --> Game 2 viewership decline in history.

My first theory is that a lot of people were intrigued by the promise of a Cliff Lee/Tim Lincecum pitcher's duel, and were less intrigued by a matchup between two guys most of the country's never heard of. My second theory is that, oh, gross, Matt Cain is gross.