Viewership for Fox’s coverage of Game 7 of the World Series set a record low, but the audience was still the second largest of any prime-television program this season, according to live-plus-same-day figures released today by Nielsen.
The San Francisco Giants Series-clinching 3-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals Wednesday averaged 23.52 million viewers, the least for a Game 7 among the figures for the 14 Game 7s available.
The previous low for a Game 7 was 25.4 million in 2011 — the most recent Game 7 before Wednesday — when the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Texas Rangers, 6-2.
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 World Series viewership date back to 1969. Viewership figures are not available for Game 2 of the 1976 Series and Game 7 of the 1986 Series.
Viewership for Game 7 was the second highest among prime-time programs during the 2014-15 season, now in its sixth week, behind only the 23.79 million for the Oct. 19 “Sunday Night Football” on NBC which included Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning’s 509th touchdown pass to break the NFL career record formerly held by Brett Favre.
The Series averaged 13.93 million viewers, the third lowest of all-time, ahead of only the 2012 Series, which averaged 12.66 million, and the 2008 Series which averaged 13.64 million.
—City News Service