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HOLLYWOOD (CNS) - World Series viewership was the second-lowest on record, but 20.16% higher than last year's record low, and topped the NBA Finals for the third consecutive year and fifth time in six years, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen.
Fox's coverage of the Atlanta Braves' six-game victory over the Houston Astros averaged 11.741 million viewers. The Los Angeles Dodgers' six- game victory over the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2020 World Series averaged 9.771 million viewers, erasing the previous record low of 12.64 million viewers for the San Francisco Giants' four-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers in 2012.
All but one of the 2021 Series games drew the largest audiences of their nights, including Atlanta's series-clinching 7-0 victory Nov. 2, which averaged 13.968 million viewers, second among prime-time broadcast and cable programs airing between Nov. 1 and Sunday.
The Game 6 audience was the third-lowest on record behind the 12.704- million average for Game 6 of the 2020 Series and the 13.37-million average for Game 6 of the 2014 Series between the Kansas City Royals and Giants.
ABC's coverage of the Milwaukee Bucks' six-game victory over the Phoenix Suns in July averaged 9.891 million viewers.
Viewership for most forms of programming has decreased in recent years, in part because of competition from streaming programs, including streams of the same programs shown on traditional television.
Records for World Series viewership are available dating back to 1968.
The World Series has aired on Fox since 2000.
NBC's ``Sunday Night Football'' returned to the top of the ratings after a one-week absence, despite drawing its smallest audience since Oct. 18, 2020, with the Los Angeles Rams' 28-16 loss to the Tennessee Titans averaging 14.214 million viewers.
The audience was the smallest since the Rams' 24-16 loss to the San Francisco 49ers averaged 12.603 million viewers in 2020, opposite Game 7 of the National League Championship Series between the Dodgers and Atlanta.
``Sunday Night Football'' has been the most-watched prime-time program for seven of the past eight weeks, with only Fox's ``Thursday Night Football'' topping it during that span.
The 93-minute fourth-season premiere of the Paramount Network neo- Western ``Yellowstone'' and an hourlong episode that followed were the week's most-watched non-sports programs, averaging 8.383 million and 7.841 million viewers, eighth and ninth overall.
CBS' ``Young Sheldon'' was the most-watched comedy for the fifth consecutive week, averaging 7.124 million viewers, 13th overall and fifth among non-sports programs.
The CBS police drama ``Blue Bloods'' was the most-watched program beginning at 10 p.m. for the second time in three weeks and fourth time in the seven-week-old 2021-22 prime-time television season, averaging 6.196 million viewers, 19th overall and 11th among non-sports programs.
The CBS comedy ``Ghosts'' was the most-watched new series for the second consecutive week, averaging 5.936 million viewers, 20th for the week and 12th among non-sports programs.
The concluding game of the World Series, ``Thursday Night Football'' and an hour of NFL programming on Sunday enabled Fox to be the most-watched network for the second consecutive week, averaging 6.87 million viewers for its 18 hours of programming.
NBC was second for the week, averaging 5.2 million, followed by CBS, which averaged 4.89 million and ABC, which averaged 2.82 million. The CW averaged 480,000 viewers for its 14 hours of programming.
NBC, CBS and ABC each aired 22 hours of prime-time programming.
Fox's ``Thursday Night Football'' was fourth for the week, averaging 11.653 million viewers for the Indianapolis Colts' 45-30 victory over the New York Jets, while its 23-minute Sunday NFL postgame show, ``The OT,'' averaged 10.967 million viewers, sixth for the week.
Fox also benefited from the 37-minute runover of its Sunday afternoon NFL coverage into prime time, whose viewership figure was unavailable. The runover is not considered a separate program but is included in the weekly average.
Fox's most-watched non-sports program was the procedural drama ``9-1- 1,'' which averaged 5.205 million viewers, 28th overall and 19th among non- sports programs.
``Chicago Fire'' was NBC's most-watched non-sports program, averaging 7.002 million viewers, 14th for the week and sixth among non-sports programs.
The news magazine ``60 Minutes'' was CBS' most-watched program, averaging 7.531 million viewers, 10th overall and third among non-sports programs.
``Dancing with the Stars'' was ABC's most-watched program, 39th overall and 28th among non-sports programs.
The crime drama ``Walker'' was The CW's most-watched program for the second consecutive week, averaging 1.019 million viewers, 112th among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.
The 20 most watched prime-time programs consisted of three NFL games; three NFL pregame shows; Fox's 23-minute NFL postgame show, ``The OT''; Game 6 of the World Series; ``60 Minutes'' and six CBS entertainment programs; three NBC entertainment programs and two episodes of ``Yellowstone.''
``Monday Night Football'' was the most-watched cable program for the eighth time in eight 2021 regular-season broadcasts, with the Kansas City Chiefs' 20-17 victory over the New York Giants averaging 11.962 million viewers, third overall.
ESPN averaged 2.756 million viewers to be the most-watched cable network after three consecutive third-place finishes. Fox News Channel dropped one spot to second, averaging 2.744 million viewers. Paramount Network was third, averaging 1.635 million viewers, and Hallmark Channel fourth, averaging 1.406 million.
MSNBC dropped to fifth after four consecutive fourth-place finishes, averaging 1.097 million viewers.
CNN rose one spot to 11th, averaging 713,000 viewers, 21.9% more than its 585,000-average the previous week. CNN also trailed HGTV (867,000) TLC (832,000), Food Network (724,000), TBS (717,000) and History (716,000).
The top 20 cable programs consisted of ``Monday Night Football'' and its 13-minute pregame show; ESPN's coverage of the Alabama-LSU college football game; 13 Fox News Channel political talk shows -- five broadcasts each of ``Tucker Carlson Tonight'' and ``Hannity'' and three of ``The Ingraham Angle'' - - three episodes of ``Yellowstone'' and the Hallmark Channel movie, ``Next Stop, Christmas.'' An episode of the Univision telenovela ``La Desalmada'' was the most- watched prime-time Spanish-language program for the second consecutive week, with the Friday episode averaging 1.641 million viewers, 67th among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 101st consecutive week and 103rd time in 104 weeks, averaging 1.26 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 890,000 viewers, followed by UniMas (500,000), Estrella TV (140,000) and Azteca America (40,000).
ABC's ``World News Tonight with David Muir'' was the most-watched network nightly newscast for the 101st consecutive week, the 152nd time in 153 weeks and the 204th time in 206 weeks, averaging 8.012 million viewers.
``NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt'' was second, averaging 6.9 million viewers, followed by the ``CBS Evening News with Norah O'Donnell,'' which averaged 5.041 million viewers.
The week's 10 most-watched prime-time programs were NBC's ``Sunday Night Football''; Fox's coverage of Game 6 of the World Series; ESPN's ``Monday Night Football''; Fox's ``Thursday Night Football''; NBC's 10-minute ``Sunday Night Football'' pre-kickoff show; Fox's 23-minute NFL postgame show, ``The OT''; the 19-minute third segment of NBC's ``Football Night in America''; the 8 p.m. and 9:13 p.m. Sunday episodes of Paramount Network's ``Yellowstone'' and CBS' ``60 Minutes.''