World Series’ TV Ratings Third Lowest in History

Even with the New York Yankees coming back to win four consecutive games after losing the first two at home, the World Series averaged only a 17.4 television rating, the third-lowest ever, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Only the earthquake-delayed 1989 Series between Oakland and San Francisco, at 16.4, and the 1993 Series between Toronto and Philadelphia, at 17.3, did worse.

The share for New York and Atlanta was only a 29, the first time a Series has had a share below 30. The Series had 30 shares in 1989 and 1993.

A share represents the percentage of households where television is being watched at the time. A rating is the percentage of all television households.

The rating was hurt by the Game 1 rainout, which forced Game 2 to be played on Monday, Oct. 21, and compete against ABC’s “Monday Night Football.”

On the positive side, the Series finished strong, with Game 6 getting a 19.1 national rating and a 22.0 Los Angeles rating, and Fox won a prime-time week for the first time with a 15.8 average.

Also, the World Series trailed only the Super Bowl, at 46.1, and the Olympics, at 21.6, for prime-time sports ratings. Last June’s NBA finals got a 16.7 and the two Stanley Cup finals games on Fox averaged a 3.6.

Each rating point represents 970,000 homes.

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(Southland Edition) Series Ratings

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Year Rat. Share 1968 (NBC) 22.8 57 1969 (NBC) 22.4 58 1970 (NBC) 19.4 53 1971 (NBC) 24.2 59 1972 (NBC) 27.5 58 1973 (NBC) 30.7 57 1974 (NBC) 25.6 47 1975 (NBC) 29.0 53 1976 (NBC) 27.7 48 1977 (ABC) 29.9 52 1978 (NBC) 32.7 56 1979 (ABC) 28.0 51 1980 (NBC) 32.8 56 1981 (ABC) 30.0 49 1982 (NBC) 28.0 49 1983 (ABC) 23.3 41 1984 (NBC) 22.9 40 1985 (ABC) 25.3 39 1986 (NBC) 28.6 46 1987 (ABC) 24.0 41 1988 (NBC) 23.9 39 1989 (ABC) 16.4 30 1990 (CBS) 20.8 36 1991 (CBS) 24.0 39 1992 (CBS) 20.2 34 1993 (CBS) 17.3 30 1994 Not played 1995 (ABC-NBC) 19.5 33 1996 (Fox) 17.4 29

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