The six-game World Series averaged 9.8 million viewers, down from a previous low of 12.7 milliongetty images
Fox averaged 12.6 million viewers for the Dodgers' World Series-clinching Game 6 win against the Rays. While that was the best figure for the World Series this year, it is a drop of 24% from last year’s Nationals-Astros Game 6 and part of the least-watched Fall Classic in history. All told, the six-game series averaged 9.8 million viewers. The previous low: the Giants' sweep of the Tigers in '12 that averaged 12.7 million viewers. Viewership for most major sports are down significantly during the pandemic this year. Fox execs pointed to the World Series’ performance against other primetime programming, noting the average World Series audience was about 40% better than the top-ranked primetime show in that period. “Go back through 50 years of World Series history,” said Fox Sports Exec VP and Head Of Strategy & Analytics Mike Mulvihill. “You’ll rarely, if ever, find that kind of margin between the World Series and top-ranked entertainment.” He added, “We had basically 20 hours of content, which is like a full season of the No. 1-rated half hour or hour show. We just happened to get it in a span of eight days" (Karp & Ourand, THE DAILY).
SOLID LOCAL NUMBERS: The AP reports Game 6 drew a 27.5 rating in L.A., the "highest for the Dodgers in the market" since a Game 7 World Series loss to the Astros in '17 drew a 36.7 rating. Game 6 drew an 18.2 rating in Tampa, the "highest for the Rays there since the fifth and final game" of the '08 World Series against the Phillies drew a 29.8 rating. This year’s series averaged a 21.2 rating in L.A. and a 15.2 rating in Tampa (AP, 10/29).
NATIONAL NUMBERS AREN'T EVERYTHING: YAHOO SPORTS' Jack Baer wrote the fact that a six-game World Series set the average viewership low is "especially rough, given that ratings tend to get better as a series goes on." The Dodgers fanbase also is "sizable enough that you have to wonder just how bad things could have been had a team in a smaller market won the NL." Baer writes the "odds are MLB wished it had better" viewership numbers. Still, national viewership is "just one measure of a sport’s health, especially in a sport that is being increasingly identified as a regional product, with casual fans valuing their own team over following national stars" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 10/28). In L.A., Stephen Battaglio notes MLB's postseason has been "competing with cable news for viewers." Fox News and CNN, boosted by the closing weeks of the Presidential campaign, "delivered their largest prime-time audiences in history for the month of October." That "likely cut into the baseball audience, which, like cable news, is made up largely of older adults" (L.A. TIMES, 10/29).
