There once was a time when the mere thought of competing with the World Series made the NFL hide under the bed. Nowadays, regular-season football is the monster lurking under the World Series’ futon.
When ESPN announced the numbers for the Week 7 Cowboys-Eagles game (18.8 million), Fox had yet to disclose the viewership for Game 3 of the World Series between (Googles it) Tampa Bay and Milwaukee. And for good reason.
Via Manny Soloway of Awful Announcing, the baseball game averaged 8.33 million viewers. That made it the fourth-least-watched World Series game ever, behind only Game 3 in 2023, Game 4 in 2023, and Game 3 in 2020.
In the 1970s, the NFL moved Monday Night Football to Thursday, in order to avoid competing with the World Series. Prior to 2010, the NFL avoided playing on Sunday nights, in order to avoid competing with the World Series.
Now, baseball should endeavor to play World Series games when NFL games aren’t being played. Which means Tuesday night, Wednesday night, Friday night, and Saturday night.
Until the NFL starts playing on Tuesday night and Wednesday night. Which seems inevitable.