ESPN.com · Oct 23, 2019
TV audience for World Series' Game 1 falls 11.4% from 2018
The World Series opener between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros narrowly averted setting a record low.
Washington's 5-4 victory Tuesday night averaged 12,194,000 fans, according to national numbers from Nielsen. That edges the 12,191,000 who tuned in for San Francisco's 7-1 win over Kansas City in the 2014 opener.
The numbers are down 11.4% from last year's Game 1 between the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers, which averaged 13.76 million viewers. The 2017 opener between Houston and LA averaged 14.7 million.