Fox’s coverage of the World Series set three record lows for viewership, but also gave the network three nightly victories and a tie for first place for the week among the young adult viewers it targets.
Viewership for Games 1, 4 and 5 were the lowest for each respective game, according to live-plus-same-day figures released today by Nielsen. Fox was the night’s most-watched network for Games 2, 3 and 4 Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
For the first time since the introduction of the People Meter system in 1987, the network airing five World Series games did not win the week.
CBS was the most-watched network for the fifth time in the five-week-old season, averaging 11.53 million viewers for its prime-time programming between Oct. 20 and Sunday. Fox was second, averaging 10.12 million, followed by NBC, which averaged 7.82 million viewers, and ABC, which averaged 6.61 million.
The San Francisco Giants 7-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals last Tuesday averaged 12.19 million viewers, the least for a Game 1, and 13th among the week’s prime-time broadcast and cable programs.
Kansas City’s 7-2 victory in Game 2 Wednesday was the most-watched of the Series’ opening five games, averaging 12.92 million viewers, the most for any prime-time program for the night and 10th for the week.
The Royals 3-2 victory in Game 3 Friday averaged 12.13 million, the night’s most-watched program and 15th for the week.
The Giants 11-4 victory in Game 4 Saturday averaged 10.74 million, the least for a Game 4, but the night’s most-watched program and 21st for the week.
Another record low was set Sunday, when San Francisco’s 5-0 victory in Game 5 averaged 12.64 million, 11th for the week.
Game 5 not only trailed NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” game between the Green Bay Packers and New Orleans Saints, which averaged 18.8 million viewers, second for the week, but also drew fewer viewers than the AMC horror drama “The Walking Dead” (13.8 million) and the CBS news magazine “60 Minutes” (13.23 million).
All five World Series games trailed the week’s three prime-time NFL games.
CBS’ “Thursday Night Football” game between the San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos was the week’s most-watched program, averaging 20.22 million viewers. ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” game between the Houston Texans and Pittsburgh Steelers was eighth for the week, averaging 13.28 million viewers.
Viewership for most forms of programming has decreased in recent years because of increased competition for viewers attention from viewing programming recorded earlier, the Internet, video games and cable television.
Records for the World Series are available dating back to 1968.
CBS had each of the week’s three most-watched scripted programs and seven of the top eight, led by “NCIS,” which was third overall, averaging 17.13 million viewers.
CBS had four of the week’s six most-watched programs, topped by “NCIS,” which averaged 17.26 million viewers, finishing third. “The Big Bang Theory” was the most-watched comedy for the fifth time in the season’s five weeks, averaging 16.02 million viewers to finish fifth.
CBS had each of the three most-watched new scripted series for the fourth consecutive week — “NCIS: New Orleans,” which averaged 16.13 million viewers, finishing fourth for the week; “Madam Secretary,” which averaged 11.71 million viewers to finish 18th for the week; and “Scorpion,” which averaged 10.75 million viewers to finish 20th for the week.
CBS also benefited from the 61-minute overrun of its afternoon NFL coverage into prime time. The overrun, which is not considered a separate program but is included in the weekly average, averaged 23.25 million viewers.
The World Series enabled Fox to tie CBS for first place among viewers ages 18-49, the group Fox, ABC and NBC target and advertisers covet because it watches less television and is harder to reach.
The week’s only premiere on the four major broadcast networks, the NBC supernatural drama “Constantine,” finished sixth in its 10-11 p.m. Friday time slot and 73rd for the week, averaging 4.28 million viewers.
“Sunday Night Football” was the week’s most-watched programs among viewers ages 18-49, averaging 8.97 million viewers; followed by “The Walking Dead” (8.85 million); “Thursday Night Football” (8.49 million); NBC’s nine- minute “Sunday Night Football” kickoff show (6.33 million); ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” (6.15 million); and “The Big Bang Theory” (5.82 million).
The live-plus-same day figures are treated with less importance by network executives than they had been in the past because the growing amount of delayed viewing has prompted advertisers to increase acceptance of figures that include delayed viewing.
CBS and ABC both broadcast 22 hours of prime-time programming for ratings purposes, NBC 21 1/2 hours and Fox 20 hours.
“The Walking Dead” was the most-watched cable program for the third consecutive week. ESPN was the most-watched cable network for the seventh consecutive week, averaging 2.95 million viewers.
The week’s most-watched Spanish-language prime-time program was Tuesday episode of the Univision telenovela “Mi Corazon Es Tuyo,” which averaged 4.33 million viewers, 70th among all prime-time broadcast and cable programs.
As usual, Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network, averaging 2.84 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 1.06 million, followed by UniMas, which averaged 570,000, Estrella TV, which averaged 270,000, MundoFox, which averaged 140,000, and Azteca America, which averaged 130,000.
The “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams” was the most-watched network nightly newscast for the 267th consecutive week and 314th of the past 315, averaging 8.40 million viewers. ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was second, averaging 7.95 million.
The “CBS Evening News” was third, averaging 6.48 million viewers. Its average did not include Thursday because of NFL coverage.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were CBS’ “Thursday Night Football”; NBC’s “Sunday Night Football”; CBS’ “NCIS,” “NCIS: New Orleans” and “The Big Bang Theory”; AMC’s “The Walking Dead”; NBC’s nine- minute “Sunday Night Football” kickoff show; ESPN’s “Monday Night Football”; CBS’ “60 Minutes”; and Fox’s coverage of Game 2 of the World Series.
— City News Service