The World Series beat “Monday Night Football” in the battle for television viewers.
The Los Angeles Dodgers' 4-2 victory over the New York Yankees in Game 3 of the Fall Classic averaged 13.64 million viewers on Fox, Fox Deportes and streaming according to early numbers by Nielsen. That beat the 13.4 million that tuned in for the Pittsburgh Steelers' 26-18 win over the New York Giants on ABC, ESPN, ESPN Deportes, ESPN2 and streaming.
The audience for Yankees-Dodgers peaked at 14.25 million from 9-9:15 p.m. EDT. It was the most-watched Game 3 since 2018, when the Dodgers' 18-inning victory over the Red Sox average 13.3 million.
It is Fox's most-viewed prime time telecast on a Monday since Game 5 of the 2013 Series between Boston and St. Louis (14.45 million).
It was the ninth time since 1986 that a World Series game was played on a Monday night, but only the fourth that it went head-to-head against “Monday Night Football” on network television.
Last year marked the first time the NFL beat the Fall Classic on Monday night. The Texas Rangers' 3-1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 3 last year is the least-viewed World Series game on record, averaging 8.13 million viewers. That same night, Detroit's 26-14 victory over Las Vegas averaged 15.2 million on ESPN, ABC and ESPN Deportes.
Through three games, the World Series is averaging 14.42 million, its highest number in seven years.
The game had a 20.0 rating and 52 share in Los Angeles and 11.6 rating and 29 share in New York.
The rating is the percentage of television households tuned in. The share refers to a percentage of the audience viewing it at the time.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
