World Series Game 7 Scores Best Overnight Baseball Rating Since 2001

Not only are fans on the North Side of Chicago in a state of ecstasy, executives at FOX are undoubtedly over the moon about the ratings numbers from Wednesday night’s historic World Series Game 7.

Austin Karp of Sports Business Daily reports that the Chicago Cubs’ breakthrough win scored a 25.2 overnight rating for FOX, the highest baseball rating since the 2001 Game 7 between the New York Yankees and the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Big win for MLB: Fox scores 25.2 overnight rating for @Cubs win over the @Indians, marking best WS Game 7 since DBax-Yanks 2001 with 27.0

— Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) November 3, 2016

Amazingly, the number could’ve been even higher were it not for the 17-minute rain delay at the end of the ninth inning. Fox Sports executive vice president Michael Mulvihill shared the quarter-hour ratings breakdown, which showed that many people turned the game off when the rains fell.

Overnights by quarter-hour show the impact of the rain delay:

11:30p 31.1
1145p 30.8
12m 24.3
1215a 27.0
12:30a 27.2

— Michael Mulvihill (@mulvihill79) November 3, 2016

When the final ratings numbers come out, the total audience could possibly top that 2001 Yankees-Diamondbacks game. Per Mulvihill, that game ended up drawing a total audience of more than 39 million viewers.

Game 7 will either be the most-watched baseball game in 15 years or the most-watched in 25 years. 2001 Game 7 averaged 39.084 mill.

— Michael Mulvihill (@mulvihill79) November 3, 2016

[image via screengrab]

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