World Series Posts Least-Watched Starter Ever

Rough news for Fox: the all-time low overnight ratings for Tuesday’s game one of the World Series translated to the MLB championship’s least-watched starter in modern TV metrics.

The first game between the Kansas City Royals and the San Francisco Giants, an embarrassing 7-1 loss for the Royals, only pulled 12.19 million viewers according to final adjusted Nielsen ratings. That falls below the previous low set in 2012 when just a shade more viewers (50,000) tuned into see the Giants beat the Detroit Tigers.

Nobody was projecting particularly strong returns for this World Series. Kansas City is a relatively small market — and though it’s the Royals’ first appearance in nearly 30 years, the Giants have become something of a World Series fixture with three appearances in the past five.

In the key demo, Fox ended up averaging a 3.4 rating among adults 18-49.

The series is far from over. And while a seven-game series could certainly see ratings spike, last night’s near-shut-out doesn’t bode well for Kansas City making that happen.

“I would rather have a seven-game series between any two teams than a four-game series between the Yankees and Dodgers,” Fox Sports Media Group senior vp programming, research and content strategy Michael Mulvihill recently told The Hollywood Reporter. “You’re always going to root for a game six, and then for a game seven.”

The least-watched World Series game ever still stands as game three of the 2008 series. Only 9.8 million viewers watched the rain-delayed match-up between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Tampa Bay Rays.