The Score's 'Rahimi and Harris' off to middling start, ratings-wise and otherwise

We have the first full Nielsen ratings book for The Score’s nascent midday show with Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris, and the numbers tell us … something.

Coming off a winter book in which the time slot, then with Harris and Dan Bernstein, ranked first in the market among men 25-54, middays fell to third in the spring. The drop in share was even more pronounced, falling from 7.7 to 5.9.

But Rahimi and Harris outperformed the spring book last year, when Bernstein and Laurence Holmes co-hosted middays and drew a 4.8 share that ranked eighth.

So what does that mean? Well, the NFL doesn’t play in the spring and summer. Listening is generally higher in the fall and winter, when football talk dominates the day. (Some would say it does all year on The Score, and they have a point.) As such, Bernstein and Harris ranked second in the fall of 2024 with a 7.4 share.

Put it all together, and the new “Rahimi and Harris” show is somewhere in the middle, which is appropriate because so far, it’s mid.

The pairing was largely a matter of convenience. After working with Bernstein for over a year, Rahimi had been appearing on the station weekly. Harris had been filling in on occasion before joining Bernstein full-time when Holmes moved to afternoons. Rahimi did as well when the station fired Bernstein in March.

The Score knows the midday show is a work in progress and Rahimi and Harris are learning on the job. Both have largely TV backgrounds, but they’ve worked enough in radio to flatten the learning curve. Still, one is far ahead of the other.

For having never driven a radio show before, Rahimi is doing well. There’s some crossover from her time hosting pre- and postgame shows at NBC Sports Chicago. She’s in control of the show, is clearly prepared and knows her stuff.

Harris is coming along but needs work. By all accounts, he’s a nice guy, but being overly friendly on a sports-talk show doesn’t jibe. Arguing is part of the gig, and Harris tends to fold. It’s good when Rahimi presses him on a point. The show could use a little tension.

Both too often regale listeners with their professional history outside Chicago. Rahimi has been here for more than 10 years. She has enough material on the Chicago sports experience to limit her Texas and Philadelphia references. Harris has been here about half that span and is more prone to bringing up his time elsewhere, including Philadelphia (they overlapped there) and Alabama, where he grew up.

This week, while discussing the intensity of Bears practice, Harris said, “If you’ve ever played high school football south of the Mason-Dixon line, you know about the two-a-days as a high school football player.” Chicago is north of that line, and those practices certainly weren’t limited to the South.

Rahimi replied, “You’re doing up-downs, somebody throwing up, maybe two dudes are lining up opposite each other on a two-by-four. That might’ve just been random schools I covered in Oklahoma and Texas, but still.”

For a station built on Chicago personalities, both Rahimi and Harris must continue developing into one. That’s a challenge because hosts can unwittingly expose themselves when, for example, a reference to The Score’s past that most listeners understand eludes them. It’s a turn-off when the listener is in on the joke but the hosts aren’t.

The show’s production could use a boost, as well. The open ends with, “Remember, it’s just sports.” Right off the bat, the show minimizes itself. Yes, the show shouldn’t take itself too seriously. Its purpose should be to inform and entertain, not save the world. But a sports station saying “it’s just sports” is oxymoronic. Give the listeners some respect.

Whatever you think of Nielsen’s ratings system (it measures using meter-based devices as opposed to paper diaries), it’s the currency by which stations are judged. And through its first book, “Rahimi and Harris” is doing fine. That contradicts popular opinion on social media, but again, it only has been three months. These things take time.

Football season will drive listenership, but it also will put the show under a bigger spotlight. The Score figures to have another loaded roster of Bears-related guests, and that should help Rahimi and Harris. But to take full advantage of the season and raise their ratings, their content and conversation needs to improve.

Remote patrol

• Chicago Sports Network will simulcast seven White Sox games this season on The U (WCIU-Channel 26), including all three games of the Cubs-Sox series this weekend. The broadcasts will include the pre- and postgame shows.
  
• Danny Parkins, the former afternoon co-host on The Score, will appear on FS1’s “First Things First” when it expands to three hours (2-5 p.m. weekdays) this fall. Fox Sports canceled Parkins’ previous FS1 show, “Breakfast Ball.”
  
• ESPN’s top WNBA crew of Ryan Ruocco, Rebecca Lobo and Holly Rowe will call the Fever-Sky game at 2 p.m. Sunday from the United Center on ABC.
  
• ESPN picked up the Cubs’ game Aug. 10 at the Cardinals for “Sunday Night Baseball.”