Dodgers, Rays draw record-low TV World Series audience for Game 1
Oct. 21, 2020 Updated Wed., Oct. 21, 2020 at 10:03 p.m.
ARLINGTON, Texas – The Los Angeles Dodgers’ victory over the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 1 drew a record-low audience of television viewers for a World Series game.
Los Angeles’ 8-3 win received a 5.1 rating and 11 share, and was seen by an average of 9,195,000 viewers on Fox from 5:06 p.m. to 8:41 p.m. PDT on Tuesday, Nielsen Media Research said Wednesday.
The previous low had been set the only other time the Rays were in the World Series, when their 5-4 loss to Philadelphia in Game 3 in 2008 was viewed by an average of 9,836,000 that Oct. 25, a Saturday night.
The start was delayed by rain for 91 minutes and the final out was at 1:47 a.m. EDT.
Until now, the low for a Game 1 had been San Francisco’s 7-1 win over Kansas City on Oct. 21, 2012, viewed by an average of 12,191,000 on a Tuesday night.
Washington’s 5-4 victory over Houston in last year’s opener was seen by an average of 12,283,000 on Oct. 22, also a Tuesday night.
Still, Fox won the prime time evening with its best performance on a Tuesday night since Game 6 of last year’s World Series.
The rating is the percentage of television households tuned in to a broadcast. The share is the percentage viewing a telecast among those households with TVs on at the time.
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