Viewership for Fox’s coverage of Game 1 of the World Series set a record low, with the San Francisco Giants 7-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals averaging 12.19 million viewers, according to live-plus-same-day figures released Wednesday by Nielsen.
The previous low for Game 1 was 12.24 million viewers, set in 2012 when San Francisco faced the Detroit Tigers.
The World Series trailed CBS’ “NCIS” in the 8:30-9 p.m. time slot and “NCIS: New Orleans” in the 9-9:30 p.m. and 9:30-10 p.m. time slots. However, it did win the 10-10:30 and 10:30-11 p.m. time slots.
Since records began being kept in 1968, the largest audience for Game 1 of a World Series was in 1978 when NBC’s coverage of the game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees averaged 43.51 million viewers in an era when viewer choices were basically limited to the three major broadcast networks.
The World Series has aired on Fox each year since 2000.
