June 1, 1964 - The New York Mets obtained an amazing television rating in the New York metropolitan area during the Sunday doubleheader at Shea Stadium with the San Francisco Giants that took 10 hours and 23 minutes.
Station WOR-TV said today that on the basis of an average quarter-hour rating, the Mets were the top television attraction from 1:05 to 11:28 p.m., when the 23-inning second game ended with victory for the Giants. Among individual programs, the Mets seemed to have outrated everything except Ed Sullivan on Channel 2 and “Bonanza” on Channel 4. During the second game, which had a higher rating than the first, Channel 9’s average rating was 15.1 against 13.9 for the second station, WOR-TV said. The ratings, which were said to represent the percentage of television homes tuned to a program, were compiled by the American Research Bureau.
An interesting point of the rating chart was that it showed the figures climbing as the evening wore on. The A.C. Nielsen Company, another rating firm, said the Mets’ rating was 13 at 7 o’clock, 20 at 9 o’clock, and 22 at 11 o’clock.
The ascending rating might have related to what was happening to fans in Shea Stadium. More than 57,000 were in the stands when the first game started, but only 8,000 were there at 11:28. Conceivably, many who left the station went home to catch the game on television.
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