Fox Scores Big World Series Ratings Win

10.31.2013

With their historic win on home turf at Fenway Park, the Boston Red Sox helped deliver Fox's highest-rated World Series game since 2011.

Game 6 of the series drew 18 million viewers who watched the Sox beat the St. Louis Cardinals, with a 5.4 in the 18-49 prime time demographic. The entire series has been a ratings win for Fox, handily beating last year's championship-which was the lowest on record.

2011's Game 6 drew 21 million viewers. Wednesday's game also gave Fox the best Wednesday night of any network so far this season.

"This baseball season has been a tremendous success across the board for FOX Sports, and 2014 can't get here soon enough," said FOX Sports President and COO Eric Shanks in a statement Thursday. "Our postseason coverage saw a 26% jump year-to-year, while ratings for the All-Star Game grew."

Shanks noted that the 2014 season will mark the debut of MLB play on Fox Sports 1, accompanied by studio analysis and original baseball programming.Â

Overall, the 2013 World Series averaged and 8.9/15 national household rating, and 14.9 million viewers-a 17 percent rise in rating and viewership over last year (7.6/12 and 12.7 million viewers.Â

Not surprisingly, Boston led all markets in viewership, with a massive 55.2/75 rating, the best performance the World Series has seen in Beantown since Game 4 in 2007 (The Red Sox faced off against the Colorado Rockies). Other markets in the top 10 included Providence, St. Louis, Hartford, Fort Myers, Kansas City, Tampa, Memphis, Las Vegas and Richmond.

Nielsen SocialGuide reported 1.6 million tweets from 623,000 unique users during Game 6, making it the most social program of the night. Overall, the 2013 World Series saw 4.3 million tweets, up 86 percent from last year, and three times as many as 2011.

Facebook reported that the 2013 series generated 32 million interactions from 11 million users, with the Red Sox proving to be the most buzz-worthy team (62 percent to 38 percent over the Cards). World Series MVP David Ortiz was the most buzzed about player on Facebook, generating four times as many comments, likes and posts as any other player.

On the other networks Wednesday, CBS found itself in a distant second place with 9.75 million viewers overall and a 2.2 in the demo. "Survivor," "Criminal Minds," and "CSI" were all down this week.

Brief Take: Baseball isn't football, but the World Series performed nearly as well as some of the NFL's most-viewed game. Now the question is whether Fox will get any ongoing promotional buck out of that performance.

Read More: The Hollywood Reporter, LA Times