Considering the teams' smaller markets and the fact that the Kansas City Royals were creamed by the San Francisco Giants, 7-1, ratings for the first game of the 2014 World Series could be worse.
Fox's telecast of the game took an expected hit from last year's first round between Boston and St. Louis, falling 14 percent in metered markets to an all-time overnight low for a game one. It averaged a 8.0 rating and 13 share. Despite the lopsided loss, Kansas City fans also watched in droves to see their team play on the big stage for the first time in three decades. The market averaged a 48.2 rating and 68 share.
Fast National returns for the game, which will be adjusted up when time zones are taken into account, have the game pulling a 2.9 rating in the key demo. That's already more than enough to secure a nightly win for Fox.
Elsewhere, several comedies were down. The second episode of NBC's Marry Me, averaging a 1.9 rating in the key demo, dropped four-tenths of a point after The Voice (3.1 adults). About a Boy (1.4 adults) was down three-tenths of a point before an even Chicago Fire (1.9 adults).
Sandwiched between steady outings of NCIS (2.5 adults) and Person of Interest (1.5 adults), newcomer NCIS: New Orleans posted some improvement on CBS. The spinoff, which CBS projects rising another 36 percent in live-plus-seven day ratings, was up two-tenths of a point for a 2.4 rating in the key demo.
Selfie (1.1 adults) managed to hold steady on ABC, but Manhattan Love Story is slipping from bad to worse. The comedy dropped another two-tenths of a point to a 0.7 rating in the key demo — making it the lowest-rated broadcast telecast of the night. Agents of SHIELD (1.5 adults) was off two-tenths ahead of a steady Forever (1.2 adults).
The Flash also took a hit. Though it's still performing exceptionally well for the CW, averaging a 1.4 in the key demo, it was off three-tenths of a point from its second episode. Supernatural (0.9 adults) held steady.
