The 2020 World Series is now two for two in terms of record-low audiences.
Wednesday’s Game 2, a 6-4 win for the Tampa Bay Rays, drew just 8.950 million viewers. That’s a new record-low for a Game 2, and a record-low for any World Series game. The previous record-low was set 24 hours earlier, for the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 8-3 Game 1 victory.
The previous record-low for Game 2 was set last year, when Nationals-Astros drew 11.925 million viewers. Viewership dropped 25% from 2019 to 2020.
Here’s a snapshot of the viewership through two games.
I’m not going to do viewership comparisons for the full series yet since viewership will inevitably increase if this year’s Fall Classic goes six or seven games, but I will note that the previous record-low average for a full series is 12.636 million viewers for the 2012 World Series (a Giants sweep of the Tigers).
MLB did get one nugget of good news on Thursday – the NFL decided to switch Sunday’s Bucs-Raiders and Seahawks-Cardinals games on the schedule due to COVID-19 concerns with the Raiders. This ensures that the two Tampa Bay teams won’t be airing in primetime at the same time, nor will the Dodgers and Raiders. At the very least, the local markets won’t have their viewership divided between NBC and Fox for Game 5.
[Data via ShowBuzz Daily]
