In the world of television ratings, this is a shocker: Baseball crushed football on a Sunday night
Per Austin Karp of the Sports Business Daily: Fox’s broadcast of Game 5 of the World Series between the Cubs and Indians drew a 15.3 overnight rating, topping the Cowboys-Eagles overtime game on NBC by 32% (11.6 for Sunday Night Football). According to Sports Media Watch, it’s the first time since 2013 that the World Series has topped SNF head-to-head.
Given national broadcasts of Cowboys’ games traditionally blow away all in its path, it’s a stunning number. World Series Game 5 was up 31% from the Royals-Mets last year (11.7) and up 87% from the Royals-Giants in 2014 (8.2). Via Sports Media Watch, the game drew the highest overnight rating for any Major League Baseball game since Game 7 of the 2011 Rangers/Cardinals Fall Classic (16.2).
Through four games, the World Series has averaged 18.2 million viewers on Fox, making it the most-watched World Series through the first four games since 2009 (19.1 million viewers after four games.)
Heading into Sunday’s game, NBC’s Sunday Night Football was down 19% and ESPN’s Monday Night Football was down 24%.
[Source:-Sports IIlustrated]
