The Giants won the pennant and Fox Sports 1 matched its all-time ratings mark on Thursday night.
Evoking Bobby Thomson 63 years earlier, Travis Ishikawa (pictured) crashed a three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth to move the Giants into the World Series versus the Kansas City Royals, as FS1 averaged a 3.1 U.S. household rating with its coverage of National League Championship Game 5. The Oct. 16 performance tied the mark the channel set the night before with the fourth contest between San Francisco and St. Louis.
Thursday night's telecast averaged 4.89 million viewers to rank second on the network's all-time Nilesen list behind the 5.09 million watchers for Game 4. FSI bowed on Aug. 17, 2013.
With its leading five and seven of its top 10 shows hailing from its first Major League Baseball postseason, FS1 has been the fastest-growing network since the start of the 2014-15 TV seasons, according to network executives.
Viewership built every half hour during the Oct. 16 telecast, which faced the CBS/NFL Network simulcast of Thursday Night Football, peaking with 6.52 million viewers from 11:00-11:14 PM (ET) when Ishikawa turned the clock back to 1951 --Thomson's three-run shot heard round the world eliminated Dem Bums, the Brooklyn Dodgers-- as his bomb sent the Cardinals home, ticketing the Giants' 20th World Series appearance. The peak audience for Game 5 marked a new 2014 postseason high, breaking the record set in Game 4, when 6.08 million watched in the 10:30 p.m. half hour.
St. Louis led all markets with a 25.2,, followed by San Francisco at an 18.8, both FS 1 records in those DMAs. Sacramento was third (13.7), followed by Kansas City, home of the American League Champion Kansas City Royals (9.4).
Fox Deportes also delivered big, tallying 199,000 viewers, including 108,000 persons 18 to 49, the highest audience delivery for a Game 5 in Spanish-language television history. Viewership peaked from 10 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. with 265,000 total viewers.
Buoyed by NLCS Game 5, Fox Sports Go rang up its fourth-best authenticated streaming day, according to FSI executives, who noted digital viewership of NLCS Game 5 was strongest in San Francisco, followed by San Jose, Los Angeles and St. Louis.
Game 1 of the 2014 World Series is scheduled for Oct. 21 at the Royals' Kauffman Stadium. Coverage begins with a special 90-minute edition of America's Pregame on FS1, followed by the World Series Pregame Show on Fox at 7 p.m. and Game 1 at 8 p.m. on the broadcaster.
