UPDATE, 2:38 PM: With the Cleveland Indians leading the 2016 World Series 2-1, there’s a lot riding on tonight’s Game 4 for the Chicago Cubs. For Fox, this year’s World Series is already delivering little but wins and now the net has hit a 12-year viewership.
With the final numbers in, last night’s 1-0 win by Cleveland over Chicago in the Windy City snagged 19.4 million viewers. That’s the best any Game 3 has done since the Boston Red Sox bear the St. Louis Cardinals 4-1 on October 24, 2004, a Tuesday. Looking at last year’s Game 3 viewership, last night’s game was up 47%
See ya at the ballpark this afternoon.
PREVIOUSLY, 10:33 AM: Even the best vocal efforts of Bill Murray couldn’t propel the Chicago Cubs to a World Series Game 3 victory at Wrigley Field last night. The Cleveland Indians’ 1-0 in the first World Series game at Wrigley in 71 years was a home run for Fox though.
Easily winning Friday for the first time this season, the network saw Game 3 score a 12.4/22 in metered market results, up 10% over Wednesday’s Game 2 in the metered markets and the best any World Series Game 3 has done since 2005. That game, featuring the Chicago White Sox’s extra-innings victory over the Houston Astros on Tuesday, October 25, 2005, drew a 13.1/23.
In fast-affiliate numbers, Friday’s Game 3 scored a 4.4/17 rating among adults 18-49 with 17.3 million viewers. That’s up a whooping 42% over the 2015 World Series Game 3, when the New York Mets beat the Kansas City Royals 9-3 on October 30 last year — also a Friday. There may be adjustments in those numbers later, but in MM results the 2016 Game 3 is up 36% over 2015 and 53% over the third game over a lackluster 2014 World Series.
As for the rest of the night, several shows took a bit of a loss facing the World Series, while others stayed even. The exception for CBS being was the ever-sturdy Blue Bloods (1.1/4), which was even with its October 21 episode in the key demo. Lead-ins MacGyver (1.0/4) and Hawaii Five-O (1.0/4) were down a tenth and two-tenths, respectively, from last week.
Starting off with another It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1.0/4) repeat, ABC saw Shark Tank (1.1/4) and 20/20 (0.7/3) down 15% and up 22%, respectively, against the ballgame. In its second week of its second season, the CW’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (0.2/1) stayed the same as last week’s soft premiere on its new night. Lead-in The Vampire Diaries (0.4/1) also was seemingly unaffected by the World Series and even with last week’s final season debut. Over on NBC, Caught On Camera With Nick Cannon (0.6/2) was the same as last week, while Dateline: NBC (0.9/3) was down a tenth.
With Cleveland now leading the best-of-7 series 2-1, today’s Game 4 in Chicago has a lot riding on those bases.
