Major League Baseball’s 2023 World Series continues to set TV records for the wrong reasons.
Fox Sports’ coverage of Game 2 of the Texas Rangers vs. Arizona Diamondbacks averaged just 8.15 million viewers Saturday night.
That made it the least-watched Fall Classic telecast on record, eclipsing the previous record low of 8.16 million viewers for Game 3 of the Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Tampa Bay Ray during the heart of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
Fox’s telecast of Friday night’s Game 1 previously set the record for least-watched Game 1, with 9.17 million viewers.
Still, Fox’s Game 2 coverage easily beat any of Saturday’s college football telecasts. CBS Sports broadcast of Georgia vs. Florida was the day’s second most-watched game with 6 million viewers.
The numbers for Monday night’s Game 3 were unavailable at press time. But they probably won’t be positive, given Fox had to go head-to-head with ESPN’s coverage of Detroit Lions vs. Las Vegas Raiders on “Monday Night Football.”
Unfortunately for Fox and MLB, the falling World Series came after a strong League Championship Series round.
Bolstered by a pair of Game 7s, Fox and TBS’ combined coverage averaged 5.2 million viewers, up 6% from last year.
With the Rangers holding a 2-1 series lead, Fox will televise Game 4 Tuesday night (8:03 pm ET).
