Already on a record-low pace, World Series ratings were hammered by the NFL Sunday night.
Sunday’s Astros-Nationals World Series Game 5 averaged a 6.5 rating and 11.39 million viewers on FOX, marking the lowest rated and least-watched Game 5 of the Fall Classic on record. The previous lows were a 7.3 and 12.64 million for Royals-Giants in 2014.
This year’s World Series accounts for the lowest rated and least-watched Game 2, Game 4 and Game 5.
Overall, Houston’s comfortable win delivered the fifth-lowest rating and sixth-smallest audience in World Series history. It was the lowest rated and least-watched World Series game that did not take place on a Saturday night (the least-watched night of the week).
Astros-Nationals is the first World Series in which multiple games averaged less than a 7.0 rating.
Game 5 was trounced in record fashion by NBC’s competing Sunday Night Football game (Packers-Chiefs: 10.4, 18.32M). SNF routed the World Series by 60% in ratings and 61% in viewership, its biggest win over the Fall Classic in a decade of head-to-head matchups.
Prior to Sunday, the World Series had beaten Sunday Night Football in three straight years. In addition to SNF, the game also trailed the three afternoon NFL windows on FOX and CBS.
The NFL did its part to weaken the World Series. For the first time since 2014, FOX did not air an NFL doubleheader leading into its Sunday night game. CBS got that powerful lead-in instead, its 60 Minutes lead-out averaging nearly as many viewers as did Game 5 (11.22M).
Without the usual NFL boost, FOX averaged just 3.27 million for its hour-long World Series pregame this year, compared to 15.3 million for a half-hour of NFL postgame and World Series pregame last year.
Locally, Game 5 averaged a series-high 35.2 rating and 55 share in Houston, up 7% from Dodgers-Astros in 2017 (32.9/53). Washington D.C. turned in a 19.0/33, a rebound from a series-low 17.3/36 in Game 4, but still behind the first three games of the series.
For the second-straight game, the World Series averaged a lower rating in D.C. than the corresponding game of the Capitals’ 2018 Stanley Cup Final appearance. The Capitals’ title-clinching Game 5 win averaged a 25.2.
Game 5 averaged a 2.7 in adults 18-49 (-41%), the third-lowest on record for any World Series game. Only Game 4 the previous night (2.3) and Game 4 in 2014 (2.6) averaged a lower rating in the demo. It also scored a 2.0 in adults 18-34 (-41%).
Lowest rated World Series games
| Lowest rated | Least-watched | ||||||
| # | Year | Game | Rtg | # | Year | Game | Vwrs |
| 1 | 2019 | HOU-WSH Gm. 4 | 5.9 | 1 | 2008 | TB-PHI Gm. 3 | 9.84M |
| 2 | 2008 | TB-PHI Gm. 3 | 6.1 | 2 | 2019 | HOU-WSH Gm. 4 | 10.21M |
| 3 | 2012 | SF-DET Gm. 3 | 6.1 | 3 | 2012 | SF-DET Gm. 3 | 10.47M |
| 4 | 2014 | KC-SF Gm. 4 | 6.3 | 4 | 2014 | KC-SF Gm. 4 | 10.74M |
| 5 | 2019 | HOU-WSH Gm. 5 | 6.5 | 5 | 2011 | STL-TEX Gm. 3 | 11.25M |
| 6 | 2011 | STL-TEX Gm. 3 | 6.6 | 6 | 2019 | HOU-WSH Gm. 5 | 11.39M |
| 7 | 2010 | SF-TEX Gm. 3 | 6.7 | 7 | 2010 | SF-TEX Gm. 3 | 11.46M |
| 8 | 2019 | HOU-WSH Gm. 3 | 7.1 | 8 | 2019 | WSH-HOU Gm. 2 | 11.93M |
| 2019 | WSH-HOU Gm. 2 | 7.1 | 9 | 2014 | KC-SF Gm. 3 | 12.13M | |
| 10 | 2014 | KC-SF Gm. 3 | 7.2 | 10 | 2014 | SF-KC Gm. 1 | 12.19M |
[Nielsen estimates from Fox Sports, ShowBuzz Daily 10.29 a, b]
