Dodgers-Rays World Series slumps to record-low ratings

The World Series drew record-low viewership, as did the NBA Finals earlier in the fall.

Fox’s coverage of the Dodgers’ six-game victory over the Tampa Bay Rays averaged 9.771 million viewers, according to live-plus-same-day figures released Tuesday by Nielsen.

The previous record low was 12.64 million viewers for the San Francisco Giants’ four-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers in 2012.

Each of the first five games of the series averaged fewer viewers than any World Series game on record before this year.

Despite the record lows, all but Game 5, which aired opposite NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” won their nights.

The week’s highest-rated program — and one of six averaging more 9 million viewers — was the Philadelphia Eagles’ 23-9 victory over the Dallas Cowboys on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” which averaged 16.933 million viewers.

For the second consecutive week, the CBS News magazine “60 Minutes” was the top ranked non-sports program, averaging 8.788 million viewers, seventh overall.

NBC’s singing competition “The Voice” was the entertainment program with the largest audience for the second consecutive week, with the Oct. 27 episode averaging 7.767 million viewers, eighth overall.

The two-hour season premiere of “This Is Us,” which followed “The Voice,” averaged 7.313 million viewers, the most for a scripted program since the May 1 season finale of the CBS crime drama “Blue Bloods” averaged 8.528 million.

“This Is Us” was 12th for the week, sixth among non-sports programs and third among entertainment programs, also trailing the Oct. 26 episode of “The Voice,” which averaged 7.606 million viewers.

Both last Tuesday’s episode of “The Voice” and the “This Is Us” season premiere aired opposite Game 6 of the World Series in the Eastern and Central time zones, where the bulk of the nation’s population lives.

The sixth game of the World Series, “Thursday Night Football” and the absence of programs starting at 10 p.m. made Fox the ratings winner for the third consecutive week, averaging 7.02 million viewers for its 18 hours, seven minutes of prime-time programming.

Fox also was bolstered by a 58-minute runover of its afternoon NFL coverage into prime time in the Eastern and Central time zones that averaged 23.733 million viewers. The runover is not considered a separate program but is included in the network’s weekly average.

NBC was second, averaging 5.56 million viewers, followed by Fox News Channel, which averaged 5.032 million viewers; ABC, which averaged 4.13 million; and CBS, which averaged 3 million viewers, all for 22 hours of programming.

Fox News Channel was the highest-rated cable network for the 40th time in 41 weeks. MSNBC was second and ESPN third.

The top-rated cable program was the Rams’ 24-10 victory over the Chicago Bears on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” Oct. 26, which averaged 10.912 million viewers, sixth overall.

“Schitt’s Creek” was the most streamed program in the latest weekly report on the four services measured by Nielsen, with viewers watching 968 million minutes of the comedy’s 80 episodes between Sept. 28 and Oct. 4.

“The Office” was second with viewers watching 929 million minutes of the 192 episodes of the 2005-13 NBC comedy.

Each of the top four streamed programs on Amazon Prime, Disney+, Hulu and Netflix were formerly or currently on a broadcast or cable network.

NBC crime thriller “The Blacklist” and ABC medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy” tied for third, with viewers watching 852 million minutes of each series.

“Ratched” was fifth following back-to-back first-place finishes, with viewers watching 791 million minutes of the Netflix psychological thriller’s eight episodes.

“Criminal Minds” was eighth, with viewers watching 604 million minutes of the 277 episodes of the 2005-20 CBS police procedural. “NCIS” was ninth, with viewers watching 584 million minutes of the action drama that has aired on CBS since 2003.