The Chicago Cubs’ historical run to the World Series helped propel Fox Sports 1 to its second straight weekly primetime cable ratings win.
FS1 rode the Cubs’ defeat of the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games of the National League Championship Series to earn its first World Series appearance since 1945 to a cable industry high average of 4.2 million primetime viewers during the week of Oct. 17-23, according to Nielsen.
Fox News finished second for the week with 3.3 million, followed by ESPN and CNN, which tied for third with 2.2 million viewers. AMC, which drew big numbers for the Oct. 23 season seven premiere of its zombie-themed series The Walking Dead, finished fifth with 2 million viewers.
MSNBC (1.8 million viewers), TBS (1.6 million), USA (1.4 million), HGTV (1.3 million) and Discover Channel (1 million) rounded out the top 10.
Fox News was the most watched network on a 24-hour basis, followed by Nickelodeon, CNN, MSNBC and ESPN.
Most Watched Cable Shows During The Week Of Oct. 17-23
Date ShowNetwork Total Viewers
10/23 The Walking Dead AMC 17.0 million
10/19 Presidential Debate (Live) Fox News 11.3 million
10/22 MLB NLCS—Chi. Cubs-L.A. Dodgers FS1 9.7 million
10/19 Presidential Debate (Pre-show) Fox News 9.4 million
10/19 Presidential Debate (Live) CNN 8.7 million
10/19 Presidential Debate/analysis Fox News 8.6 million
10/17 ESPN Monday Night Football ESPN 8.3 million
10/23 Talking Dead AMC 7.5 million
10/20 MLB NLCS—Chi. Cubs-L.A. Dodgers FS1 7.1 million
10/18 MLB NLCS—Chi. Cubs-L.A. Dodgers FS1 6.5 million
Source: Nielsen
