The Atlanta Braves might have taken home the title of World Series Champion last night, but Fox received their first weekly ratings win of the Fall TV season. After the 2020 World Series saw a record low viewership, we were interested to see how the 2021 games would compare and we are pleasantly surprised!
Last year’s record low viewership was credited to competition from the 2020 presidential election and the pandemic, but now that the world is in “the new norm”, it seems like baseball was back in the hearts and homes of millions!
For a little context before we hit you with a bunch of numbers, the “rating” is the percentage of television households tuned in to a broadcast. The “share” is the percentage viewing a telecast among homes with TVs ON at the time.
Saturday’s game received a 5.65 rating, 15 share and 10,511,000 viewers on Fox, which is up 12% from the 9.38 million who watched Game 4 last year.
Sunday’s Game 5 drew a 7.38 rating, 18 shares and 13,644,000 viewers, which marks a 35% increase over the 10.1 million for the Dodgers 2020 win in Game 5 and a 19% rise over the 11.45 million viewers for the 2019 Astro’s win in Game 5.
And it wasn’t just a good week for Fox. Broadcast TV reigns supreme in viewership.
- Fox averaged 11.9 million viewers in prime time
- NBC averaged 5.4 million viewers in prime time
- CBS averaged 3.9 million viewers in prime time
- ABC averaged 3.5 million viewers in prime time
For comparison, Fox News Channel was the most-watched prime time cable channel with 2.21 million viewers. ESPN followed closely behind with 2.17 million and Hallmark with 1.28 million.
The proof is in the numbers that broadcast television is the most watched, yet people are still PAYING for TV, when you can watch networks like Fox, NBC, CBS, ABS, the CW, PBS and more for free over-the-air with a TV antenna. Now, what are you waiting for?
