Dodgers, Rays draw record-low TV World Series audience

ARLINGTON, Texas — The Los Angeles Dodgers’ victory over the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 1 drew a record-low audience of television viewers for a World Series game.

Los Angeles’ 8-3 win received a 5.1 rating and 11 share, and was seen by an average of 9,195,000 viewers on Fox from 8:06 p.m. to 11:41 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, Nielsen Media Research said Wednesday.

The previous low had been set the only other time the Rays were in the World Series, when their 5-4 loss to Philadelphia in Game 3 in 2008 was viewed by an average of 9,836,000 that Oct. 25, a Saturday night. The start was delayed by rain for 91 minutes to 10:06 p.m. and the final out was at 1:47 a.m.

Until now the low for a Game 1 had been San Francisco’s 7-1 win over Kansas City on Oct. 21, 2012, viewed by an average of 12,191,000 on a Tuesday night.

Washington’s 5-4 victory over Houston in last year’s opener was seen by an average of 12,283,000 on Oct. 22, also a Tuesday night.

Still, Fox won the prime time evening with its best performance on a Tuesday night since Game 6 of last year’s World Series.

The rating is the percentage of television households tuned in to a broadcast. The share is the percentage viewing a telecast among those households with TVs on at the time.

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The Associated Press