Why Fox Is Bumping WWE ‘SmackDown’ to Cable Despite Record-Low World Series Ratings
Yes, the 2020 World Series is on pace to be the least-watched of all time, but these games are still quite an upgrade from some of Fox’s other programming. Hence the “WWE SmackDown” move to Fox Sports cable channel FS1 again tonight, just like last year. On Tuesday, Game 1 of the 2020 World Series earned 9.195 million total viewers on Fox — at the time a record low for any World Series game in record (television) history, though the mark would fall again just the following night. Still, the start to the Los Angeles Dodgers-Tampa Bay Rays best-of-seven-games series for the Commissioner’s Trophy was quite an upgrade over Fox’s week-ago Nielsen numbers. Also Read: World Series Viewership Falls to Another Record Low With Game 2 Last Tuesday, “Cosmos: Possible Worlds” managed just 1.231 million viewers and “Next” got 1.538 million viewers for a primetime average of 1.385 million viewers, according to Nielsen’s final Live + Same Day ratings averages. We’ll do the math for you: According to the same data set, Game 1 of the 2020 World Series brought in an audience nearly seven times larger than those shows. It was a win for the Dodgers, and a kinda-sorta...
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