Fewer Viewers For Marathon World Series Game 3

It was a World Series game few will ever forget, but the numbers just were not there.

Friday’s Red Sox-Dodgers World Series Game 3 earned a 7.9 rating and 13.25 million viewers on FOX, down 11% in ratings and 15% in viewership from Dodgers-Astros last year (8.9, 15.68M) and down 28% and 32% respectively from Indians-Cubs in 2016 (11.0, 19.39M).

The Dodgers’ 18-inning win, which lasted more than seven hours and finished after 3:30 AM ET, was the least-watched World Series Game 3 since Royals-Mets in 2015 (13.21M). It tied the 2015 game as the lowest rated since Royals-Giants in 2014 (7.2).

According to Fox Sports executive Michael Mulvihill, Game 3 averaged 12.28 million viewers before 11 PM ET and then 14.13 million from 11 through 2:10 AM. FOX stopped running national ads after the 13th inning, meaning the final hour of the game was not rated.

All three games of the World Series have declined from last year, with Game 3 posting the steepest decline yet. None of the three games thus far has managed as large an audience as any game of Astros-Dodgers last year or Cubs-Indians in 2016. This year’s largest audience — 13.76 million for Game 1 — fell more than one million viewers short of last year’s smallest audience (14.98 million).

Despite the drop, Friday’s game delivered the third-largest World Series Game 3 audience since 2009 (Yankees-Phillies: 15.40M). That comes with a caveat. From 2007-13, Game 3 aired on a Saturday night, the least-watched night of the week.

Game 3 had a 3.4 rating in adults 18-49, down 13% from last year (3.9) and down 35% from 2016 (5.2). The 3.4 is the lowest Game 3 rating in the demo since 2015 (3.2).

It also had a 2.4 rating in adults 18-34 (-20%) and a 4.2 in adults 25-54 (-9%).

World Series Game 3 Ratings, Viewership, Past Decade

[Numbers from Fox Sports PR/Twitter 10.27, Michael Mulvihill/Twitter 10.27; Programming Insider 10.29]

World Series Epic Posts Decline in Metered Markets

Jon Lewis

Jon Lewis has been covering the sports media industry on a daily basis since 2006 as the founder and main writer of Sports Media Watch. You can contact him here or on the social media websites X (Twitter) or Bluesky.

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Comments 1

Nate Johnson says:

8 years ago

Two things… 1.) I don’t believe MLB wishes to have a marathon game like that ever again in the postseason. However, I find it interesting that numbers rose as the game went longer. I have a baseball buddy that normally doesn’t watch baseball into the wee hours (unless its the Braves playing and he feels like it), but he actually stayed up and I wonder if its because the game was on a weekend whereas if it was on a weeknight many viewers would’ve went to asleep for work or school the next morning. Also perhaps, fans was eager to see an exciting finish but had to wait until 3:30ish AM eastern time for it while on the West Coast, some were probably doing typical Friday evening activities.
2.) What MLB can learn from this is that extra innings where it’s at might not be a negative result. The Regular Season is a different story, but postseason I don’t think it is. They should learn from NHL and how playing multiple OT periods while adding in intermission doesn’t dampen the sport during the Stanley Cup instead it interest the viewers especially in key moments (and match-up) of the series.
3.) Last year Houston had a story-line. They never won a World Series in their Franchise History prior towards last year. Also the Hurricane Harvey impact on the city had reasons for casual fans to want to root and follow the Astros along with the no World Series in Franchise story-line and defeating the enemy of many New York Yankees. Red Sox today has nothing near as exciting as that. The tough part for the ratings is that the series could end tonight on a dud. Being optimistic, lets say the series extends to Boston, what excitement can be carried on to that series with Boston up 3-2? Nothing I can think of which a problem. Now if the Dodgers was going up 3-2 to Boston it’s a different story because of the anticipation of the championship and headlines from LA, but that’s eliminated. If it reaches Game 7, measuring stick has to be based on 2014’s Game 7, because 2011’s had a historical Game 6 the previous night, 2016 was a National News story-line and 2017 had great momentum from Games 1-6 and is argued as being one of the greatest World Series of all-time. 2018 (if necessary) Game 7 will be on Halloween which will be a tough break for FOX that’s why comparing it to 2014 would be fair .