The "Major League Baseball is dying" narrative lost another battle Wednesday night. Game 1 of the World Series averaged 14.4 million television viewers on Fox, making it the most-watched series opener since at least 2010, reports Rick Kissell of Variety.
2013 World Series: Game 1 dominates TV ratings with 14.4 million viewers
Wednesday night’s match-up in Fenway finished ahead of 2012 and 2011’s series openers.
Mark L. Baer-USA TODAY Sports
Despite the game getting out of hand early (and fans knowing that Tim McCarver was in the booth), the game still drew a big enough virtual crowd to be Fox's most-watched program of the season. The Red Sox' drubbing of the Cardinals Wednesday outperformed 2012's Game 1 by over two million, and it's 4.2 rating among the 18-49 demographic was up 17 percent from last season.
In the teams’ local TV markets, the game held a 39.7 household rating/61 in Boston and a 36.0/54 in St. Louis, which means... something!
According to Variety, ABC’s Modern Family will likely move ahead of Game 1 in the ratings once DVRs are accounted for, but that doesn’t change the fact that the World Series is a big draw so far. In fact, Wednesday’s game averaged about a million more viewers than this week’s Monday Night Football match-up between the Giants and Vikings.
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