Where have all the sports fans gone? It's an inevitable question after looking at ratings for big games this week: The World Series matches on Sunday and Monday night attracted far more viewers than football games aired in the same timeslot—and yet the Cardinals-vs-Rangers world championship is on track to tie for the lowest-rated series ever.

USA Today tries to make sense of this "phenomenal Black Hole for TV sports ratings":

Weird: Fox's World Series swamped NFL ratings on back-to-back nights and yet this Series so far is on pace to be the lowest-rated ever.

Say what? It's a sort of a phenomenal Black Hole for TV sports ratings -- especially NFL ratings. Fox's W.S. Game 5 drew a 8.8 national rating, which translates to 8.8% of U.S. households. That's even from last year's Giants-Rangers Game 5. Fox's W.S. games are running 1% below last year's Series, which tied the 2008 Series as the lowest-rated ever. (This Series, however, is likely to avoid an all-time low given that it will last at least six games.)

Still, Fox baseball last night crushed ESPN's Monday Night Football. Jacksonville's less-than-memorable 12-7 win over Baltimore to lift the Jags' record to 2-5 drew a stunningly tiny 5.8 overnight. That would be an all-time MNF low and, not surprisingly, ESPN has asked Nielsen to double-check its calculations.

Read the full story at USA Today.