The Washington Nationals got to Houston Astros ace Gerrit Cole on Tuesday, when Fox drew an average of 12.194 million total viewers, according to Nielsen. That overall audience number is the smallest for a World Series Game 1 in five years.
And it was almost the smallest all-time TV audience for a Fall Classic. Game 1 of the 2014 series still holds that unfortunate distinction with 12.191 million viewers.
Yes, that’s a difference of just 3,000 total television viewers between last night and five years ago, when the San Francisco Giants played the Kansas City Royals.
Fox added 493,000 viewers on its streaming platforms last night.