The disaster known as CSN Houston has been the butt of many jokes since it launched last October. But on Saturday, the network reached a new low. Their broadcast of the Astros' 6-2 loss to the Angels drew a 0.043 Nielsen rating, which translates to 984 households.
I didn't make a typo there. 984 households. That's obviously the lowest rated live game ever for the Astros, beating out a game against the Reds from last September that drew a 0.05 on FSN Houston, but that game at least had the excuse of being up against the Texans' home opener.
Saturday's game wasn't up against any NFL games, but did go head to head with the Texas-Ole Miss game, which aired on Longhorn Network (a network that still has distribution issues of its own). It also went head to head with South Carolina-Vanderbilt on ESPN, which drew a 0.6 locally, or nearly 14 times the amount of viewers for the Astros game.
Considering the Astros make a reported $80 million from their CSN Houston contract and the network is airing 157 games this season, that means the Astros made over $517 dollars per household in rights fees from Saturday's game.
All you can do at this point is give the Astros and CSN Houston a slow clap for these stunningly low viewership totals. They're simply amazing.
