Baseball World Series Opener’s TV Rating Drops 13% From 2011

The San Francisco Giants’ 8-3 win over the Detroit Tigers in Game 1 of Major League Baseball’s World Series drew a 12.6 percent smaller television rating on Fox than a year earlier, according to initial national data.

Last night’s game, in which Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval hit a record-tying three home runs, was seen in 7.6 percent of U.S. households, the News Corp. (NWSA) network said in a news release, citing Nielsen Holdings NV. That compares to an 8.7 rating for Game 1 of the 2011 World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers, which the Cardinals won 3-2.

This year’s World Series opener led prime time, Fox said. The number of viewers tuning in for the start was “virtually the same” as for last year’s game and fell as the Giants broke the game open.

Fox will broadcast Game 2 tonight.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mason Levinson in New York at mlevinson@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net