The World Series started Tuesday in Kansas City. You would hardly notice in Orlando where ratings lagged behind other major sporting events.
Game One of the World Series between the New York Mets and Kansas City Royals on Fox garnered only 151,039 viewers, finishing third in Orlando viewership in primetime.
CBS’ NCIS starring Mark Harmon was number one on the night with 249,227 viewers followed by its spinoff NCIS :New Orleans starring Scott Bakula with 187,687 viewers.
In other words, more people in Orlando are interested in watching Harmon and Bakula solving crimes than they were watching David Wright and Lorenzo Cain battle in a 14-inning classic.
The positives for Major League Baseball is the 151,039 viewers is the most viewed baseball game this year in Orlando and up from last year’s World Series. The baseball playoffs’ viewership in Orlando has been way under 100,000 for the most part up until Tuesday’s Game One of World Series.
The World Series still though does not come close to other major sporting events in Orlando like the NFL.
One of the issues baseball has is the competition. For example, a potential Game Five of the World Series would be on Sunday night, going up against Sunday Night Football’s game between the Green Bay Packers and Denver Broncos in a battle of undefeated NFL Teams with marquee stars at quarterback in Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Manning.
Still major sporting championships viewership in Orlando spike up enough to beat television shows and other sporting events to win the day, night or in some cases the week.
The NFL playoffs in Orlando garnered anywhere between 300,000 and 600,000 viewers back in January. The Super Bowl between New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks garnered more than 1.3 million viewers in Orlando! The Super Bowl post-game show had more than 600,000 viewers in Orlando.
The World Series numbers are way below what the NBA Finals average in Orlando as the Finals almost doubled the World Series audience in Orlando as this year’s NBA Finals between Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors averaged around 260,000 viewers including averaging more than 290,000 viewers from Games Four, Five and Six. Game Six of NBA Finals had 355,396 viewers.
The NCAA Tournament Championship Game between Duke and Wisconsin garnered 264,918 viewers in Orlando. The Daytona 500 race in February garnered 300,450 viewers in Orlando. The final round of The Masters Tournament back in April garnered 300,285 viewers.
The Women’s World Cup Final between United States and Japan garnered 334,226 viewers.
Prior to Tuesday night, The Women’s College World Series had more viewers than any of the Major League Baseball playoff game as the Florida Gators’ win over the Michigan Wolverines in Game Three of the championship series back on June 3 garnered 80,893 viewers which beat the Stanley Cup Final head to head between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Chicago Blackhawks that night.
All the major sporting events mentioned above won that specific day/night in viewership in Orlando except for the Daytona 500 which lost to the Oscars that day.
The World Series does have some local appeal this year with former Stetson Hatters pitcher Jacob deGrom pitching for the Mets. It will be interesting to see how the World Series viewership fairs in Orlando the rest of the way, and a long series that goes six or seven games helps big time.
The World Series though has tough competition as it go up against the start of the Orlando Magic season, college football on Saturday and NFL on Sunday.
[…] put those numbers in perspective it crushes all other major sporting event championship games. Keep in mind those numbers do not include people that watched the game at sports bars like many […]