World Series averaged 9.11 million viewers, making it the least-watched Fall Classic in TV historical past

The Texas Rangers’ 5-0 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks for his or her first championship on Wednesday night time drew the most important viewers of this World Series. However, it was not sufficient to stop the five-game collection from being the least-watched Fall Classic in recorded TV historical past.

Nielsen and Fox stated Thursday the World Series averaged 9.11 million viewers, lower than the 9.79 million common from the 2020 collection, when the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Tampa Bay Rays in six video games.

It was a 23% decline from final yr’s collection, when the Houston Astros beat the Philadelphia Phillies in six video games and averaged 11.78 million.

Wednesday night time’s sport averaged 11.48 million on Fox, a bounce of three million in comparison with Tuesday night time’s viewers. The whole viewers throughout Fox, Fox Deportes and Fox streaming platforms was 11.64 million.

It was the primary viewers over 10 million for this yr’s collection. Monday night time’s Game 3 set the report for the least-watched World Series sport on report at 8.13 million.

The viewers peaked with 14.27 million viewers for the ultimate three outs.

Baseball and community executives figured this yr’s collection would possibly face a troublesome viewers due to two groups that don’t have a lot nationwide attraction. The expanded playoffs additionally meant it was a collection matching the groups with the seventh- and Eleventh-best information.

However, the Rangers being the ninth champion since 2013 and 14 groups qualifying for the Fall Classic in the identical span does have some attraction for Fox executives.

“I think it’s a good thing for the health of baseball to have new pennant winners and new champions, new teams playing in the World Series. You don’t want it to be the same market and the same brands every year,” Fox EVP, Head of Strategy and Analytics Mike Mulvihill stated. “But I admit it is difficult for ratings in the short term when you’ve got some brands paired up that don’t really have traditional national boards.”

Bob Thompson , the retired president of Fox Sports Networks who runs his personal consulting group, additionally noticed scheduling and a brief collection as elements within the low viewers numbers.

“I think the Friday night start probably is something baseball might want to look at. It is usually the poorest-viewed night of the week. Then you had a couple games that were blowouts where people probably tuned out early,” he stated. “Whenever there’s a chance for somebody to clinch, the numbers are usually high.”

The World Series additionally continues to outperform each leisure program. This was the eighth straight yr that has occurred.

It was the most-watched occasion 4 of the 5 nights. The solely factor to beat it was “Monday Night Football,” when the Detroit Lions beat the Las Vegas Raiders.

“Our two hopes and expectations are to beat everything in entertainment, and to have a long series. We didn’t really get a long series, but we did still beat everything in entertainment,” Mulvihill stated. “As long as the series continues to do that, it’ll always be powerful in prime time.”

With the addition of the pitch clock and shorter video games, scores on regional sports community have been up 7% for the common season, with 16 of the 29 U.S.-based groups exhibiting enchancment.