Fans of Yankees and Giants: Get those remotes ready
Sports fans in New York will run smack into a patch of TV gridlock tonight, with the postponed ALCS Game 6 on Fox going head-to-head against the Cardinals-Giants game on NBC.
This sort of thing has happened before - most famously when Game 7 of the 1986 World Series was delayed by one day, pitting it against a big Monday night game between the Giants and Redskins.
Many viewers will keep tabs on both games, of course, but ratings mavens will keep a close eye on the official battle for eyeballs. The Yankees most likely will beat the Giants comfortably in New York, but the race figures to be closer in the rest of the country.
NBC's Sunday game has led the night in viewership nationally for six consecutive weeks, crushing Game 3 of the Phillies-Dodgers NLCS last Sunday, 18.2 million viewers to 5.0 million. That night football out-rated baseball even in Los Angeles, whose Dodgers were in action.
It would be a shock if that occurred in baseball-mad New York, even with the Giants on opposite the ALCS.
The other ALCS night games have begun at 7:57, but starting then would have risked conflicts with late-running football games on Fox.
