2020 World Series Suffers Worst Overall TV Rating Ever
The World Series that just wrapped up was fantastic. Four of the six games were decided by two runs or less and Game 4 was an all-time classic. Despite these facts, the TV ratings for the 2020 World Series hit an all-time low, both game-by-game and overall.
On average, the Fall Classic this year on FOX had 9.78 million viewers per game and a 5.2 household rating, down almost three million viewers per game from the now second lowest-rated World Series ever, 2012’s San Francisco-Detroit series (12.63 million/avg; 7.6 household rating). Compared to last year’s Washington-Houston series (13.91 million/avg; 8.1 household rating), Tampa Bay-Los Angeles averaged more than four million fewer viewers per game.
Worst of all, ratings for Games 1 through 5 now rank as the five least-watched games in World Series history, per Sports Media Watch. Game 3 is now the least-watched World Series game in history with just 8.2 million viewers
2020 World Series TV Ratings
- 9.2 mill
- 9 mill
- 8.2 mill
- 9.3 mill
- 10.1 mill
- 12.6 mill
(source: Nielsen | via Sportico)
TV ratings are down across the board in the sports world. A lot of it has to do with where we are right now as a country as opposed to something being wrong with our actual leagues. There’s a lot of uncertainty between the pandemic, election, and racial injustice, so some folks’ priorities have obviously shifted and you can’t blame them.
It also didn’t help that baseball’s big dance came so close to the election. Cable news shows are killing it right now in the ratings, siphoning off sports viewers in the process. World Series games were also fighting against major NFL and college games — Game 5 went up against the Sunday Night Football shootout between Arizona and Seattle in Week 7 — and the matchup wasn’t totally ideal. Political coverage wasn’t its only foe.
Had it been Yankees-Dodgers in the 2020 World Series, we may not be talking about this right now; the last time the Yanks were in the World Series (2009 vs. Philadelphia) they averaged 19.3 million viewers per game. The Rays have a small fanbase and finished last or second-last in attendance every year between 2011-19. On the other hand, the league lucked out with the Dodgers getting in and bringing along a major brand and accompanying metropolis; the ratings would have definitely been a lot worse had the Braves closed the deal in the NLCS.
Ratings for every World Series can be found here.