It’s a case of glass half-full versus half-empty for Major League Baseball and Fox with viewership numbers in for Tuesday night’s Game 6. The 10-0 Royals victory drew 13.37 million viewers on Tuesday night and an 8.9 overnight rating. Both of those figures are series highs.
13.37 million viewers for World Series Game 6, highest of series so far
— Tim Baysinger (@tim_bays) October 29, 2014
Fox gets 8.9 overnight rating for World Series Game 6 blowout (Royals 10-0 win). Clinching Game 6 last year on Wed. night got a 12.5 rating
— Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) October 29, 2014
However, the 13.37 million viewers represents the lowest watched Game 6 on record that we could find. And it’s not even close. Last year’s Red Sox-Cardinals Game 6 drew 19.2 million. That’s a massive 30% decrease. In 2011, for the last series to go to 7 games, Cardinals-Rangers Game 6 drew 21.1 million.
Now, these Royals-Giants numbers do come with a caveat. Game 6 was another blowout that was pretty much wrapped up after the 2nd inning. To be honest, I’m quite shocked that anyone not a Royals fan, let alone 13 million people stuck that out for the entire 9 innings. That hurt viewership significantly, as it has throughout the series.
The average margin of victory is 5.5 runs per game! There’s only been one game in the series decided by less than five runs. Those facts throw out the possibility of drawing any firm conclusions about baseball’s television drawing power. With closer and more competitive games, who knows what ratings this series would have done. The numbers are down, and down significantly, but how much of that is due to what factors?
Remember that before the World Series, the sport was riding high through an exciting, captivating postseason that was doing fairly well. Whatever the case, networks and skeptics will spin these numbers to fit whatever narrative they’d like.
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