Dodgers-Yankees World Series was a hit with viewers, but it could’ve been so much more
By baseball’s modern viewership standards — and the standards of some other major professional sports — the World Series was a huge success.
Sure, the final viewership for the World Series would have been even higher had the Yankees not forgotten how to catch routine fly balls and cover first base and whatnot during the fifth inning of the Dodgers’ clinching Game 5 victory.
But by baseball’s modern viewership standards — and the standards of some other major professional sports in this sprawling, splintered television/streaming landscape — the World Series was a huge success.
The series averaged 15.81 million viewers across Fox, Fox Deportes, and streaming options, per Nielsen Media Research. That was the largest viewership since the Astros banged baseballs and trash cans en route to a seven-game victory over the Dodgers in 2017, a series that averaged 18.93 million viewers.
Another success for Fox’s viewership: The Dodgers’ come-from-behind 7-6 win over the Yankees in Game 5 averaged 18.6 million viewers across the aforementioned networks and streams, making it the most-watched World Series game since the Nationals’ Game 7 victory over the Astros in 2019, which averaged 23.22 million viewers.
Fox executives can’t be disappointed by the final viewership numbers, but they must be wondering how much larger the audience would have been had the Yankees been able to extend the series.
The most-watched World Series since 2007 is . . . well, your first guess would probably be correct. The Cubs’ epic seven-game victory over fellow longtime heartbreak-sufferer Cleveland in 2016 averaged a staggering 23.4 million viewers.
A seven-game Yankees-Dodgers series wouldn’t have approached that, but it would have gotten awfully close to that 18.93 million number for the 2017 Dodgers-Astros, which is the second-most-watched over the last 18 seasons.
The World Series also fared well compared with other major sports’ recent championships. It outdrew the Celtics’ five-game victory over the Mavericks in the NBA Finals, which averaged 11.3 million viewers on ABC. The Panthers’ victory over the Oilers in seven games in the Stanley Cup Final averaged 4.17 million viewers on ABC and ESPN+ in the United States.
The Super Bowl, of course, remains in its own stratosphere, not just for a sporting event but for any television program.
The Chiefs’ 25-22 victory over the 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII in February drew 123.7 million viewers — or more than six times the audience of Game 5 of the World Series — across all platforms, including CBS, Nickelodeon, and Univision.
That rates as the biggest audience for a Super Bowl since the Patriots’ victory over the Falcons (126.3 million) in February 2017. Pretty good game, if I recall correctly.
Costas called a great game
Bob Costas is probably best-known to younger generations — maybe even most generations — as the host of NBC’s Olympic coverage from 1992-2016.
But if you grew up in the ‘80s like I did, perhaps you think of him as a baseball broadcaster first. I always have, even if the 29-time Emmy winner has, like Al Michaels and Sean McDonough, called pretty much everything, and called it well.
Costas’s knowledgeable and wry style made his pairing with Tony Kubek on NBC’s Saturday “Game of the Week” the ideal for what a modern national baseball broadcast should be. Which, looking back, is remarkable, because they were NBC’s No. 2 team. Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola made up the No. 1 team, back when a national game of the week was something to anticipate. Yeah, Scully and Garagiola were pretty good, too.
I was reminded of his real legacy in the sport when news came this past week that Costas, the Hall of Fame’s 2018 Ford Frick Award winner for broadcasting excellence, is retiring from baseball play-by-play after 42 years.
Costas, 72, has called games for TBS and MLB Network in recent years. He took some heat during the American League Division Series between the Royals and Yankees for a gaffe (calling a line out a single) and a disappointed-sounding tone on a Yankees double play.
The criticism for the former was valid, but it was somewhat misleading on the latter — social media clips of Costas’s call of the double play left out the lead-in to the call, when he was discussing Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton’s limited ability to run. His tone wasn’t ideal, but it made more sense with the full context.
It’s too bad that he didn’t have a great series the last time we’ll hear him call baseball. Because for most of the portion of his career that he has spent at ballparks, it was a pleasure to hear Costas call a game.
More to come on Celtics
Celtics fans should anticipate learning more details on the upcoming HBO Max docuseries on the 18-time NBA champions soon. What we do know about the Bill Simmons-produced project: It’s nine parts and covers the franchise’s history, even though cameras followed the 2023-24 team on its ride to the championship. It’s expected to drop in the first few months of 2025. Stay tuned.
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