Solid ending (for 2020) to least-watched World Series ever

The least-watched World Series of all-time ended with one of sports’ better ratings since the industry went dark in March.

Tuesday’s Game 6 of the World Series (Rays-Dodgers) averaged a 6.8 rating and 12.70 million viewers on FOX (13.22M including Fox Deportes and streaming), marking the highest rated and most-watched non-NFL sporting event since the wave of cancellations and postponements in March. The previous marks were a 5.3 (NLCS Game 7 and Georgia-Alabama college football) and 10.06 million (Game 5). MLB accounts for seven of the top 11.

The Dodgers’ title-clinching win, which peaked with 14.35 million, ranks as the least-watched World Series clincher on record and the least-watched World Series Game 6. Ratings fell 29% and viewership 23% from last year’s Game 6 (Nationals-Astros: 9.6, 16.55M) and 46% and 45% respectively from the previous one in 2017 (12.6, 22.33M).

The complete six-game Dodgers-Rays series averaged 9.79 million viewers, down 30% from last year’s seven-game Nationals-Astros series (13.91M) and down 31% from the five-game Dodgers-Red Sox series in 2018 (14.13M). This year’s World Series ranks as easily the least-watched ever, down 23% from the previous low of 12.66 million for Giants-Tigers in 2012.

Dodgers-Rays accounts for the five lowest rated and five of the six least-watched World Series games, setting all-time lows for each respective game.

The World Series capped a run of sharp declines and record-lows for championship series. Earlier this fall, NBA Finals viewership fell 49% to an all-time low of 7.49 million and the Stanley Cup Final declined to 61% to a 13-year low of 2.15 million. 2020 marked just the third since 2007 that the World Series averaged more viewers than the NBA Finals, joining 2009 and 2016.

Locally, Game 6 averaged a 27.5 rating and 40 share in Los Angeles — beating every game of the team’s 2018 World Series loss to the Dodgers, but down 11% from their last World Series Game 6 against Houston in 2017 (30.9/52). It topped every game of the Lakers’ trip to the NBA Finals, including the title-clinching Game 6, which aired opposite an NFL game (15.4/33).

The game also averaged a 15.2/29 in Tampa-St. Petersburg, actually lower than the Lightning’s Game 6 against the Stars in the Stanley Cup Final (15.4) — the key difference being that the Rays lost and the Lightning won. The full series averaged a 21.2 in L.A. and a 15.2 in Tampa.

Game 6 averaged a 3.4 rating in adults 18-49, the highest for any non-NFL television program since the Academy Awards. The previous high was a 3.3 for Games 5 and 6 of the NBA Finals. It also averaged a 2.4 in adults 18-34 and a 4.0 in 25-54. Last year’s Game 6 averaged a 4.1 in 18-49, 2.8 in 18-34 and 5.0 in 25-54.

Most-watched (non-NFL) sportscasts, March 11-end of World Series

Compared to same period last year

[Nielsen estimates from Programming Insider 10.29, Fox Sports, ShowBuzz Daily 10.28]