The Boston Red Sox won the World Series in six games Wednesday night — and Fox reaped the benefits to the tune of 18 million viewers.
Fox won the night across every single demo and outperformed the other three major nets combined (5.4 vs 5.2 for ABC, CBS and NBC) in the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic, according to preliminary numbers.
The network posted the highest-rated Wednesday night on any network since January in the key demo (since a Jan. 30 episode of “American Idol”) and in more than a year in total viewers (since an NFL game on NBC on Sept. 5, 2012), according to Fox. Fox’s preliminary numbers are not time-zone adjusted, but the total appeared to make Game 6 the most-watched World Series game since 2011.
Airing just the game, starting at 8 p.m., Fox was first in ratings with a 5.4 rating/15 share in the 18-49 demo and first in total viewers.
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CBS was second in ratings with a 2.2/6 and in total viewers with 9.8 million. “Survivor” at 8 earned a 2.3/7 and 9 million viewers. “Criminal Minds” at 9 received a 2.4/6 and 10.6 million viewers. At 10, “CSI” received a 1.8/5 and 9.6 million viewers.
ABC was third in ratings with a 1.8/5 and third in total viewers with 6.3 million. At 8, “The Middle” earned a 2.1/7 and 8 million. “Back in the Game” at 8:30 earned a 1.7/5 and 6.2 million. Following a rerun, “Super Fun Night” at 9:30 earned a 1.8/5 and 5.4 million. “Nashville” at 10 got a 1.4/4 and 5.2 million.
NBC was in fourth in ratings with a 1.2/3 and in total viewers with 4.4 million. “Revolution” at 8 earned a 1.4/4 and 4.9 million total viewers. A repeat followed.
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Univision was fifth in ratings with a 1.1/3 and in total viewers with 3.1 million.
The CW was sixth in ratings with a 0.6/2 and in total viewers 2 million. At 8, “Arrow” earned a 0.7/2 and 2.3 million viewers. “The Tomorrow People” at 9 received a 0.6/1 and 1.7 million viewers.
Telemundo was seventh in ratings with a 0.4/1 and in total viewers with 1.1 million.