Are Television Ratings of Baseball’s and Football’s Mega-Events Declining?

Three of the most watched annual sporting events in the United States are baseball’s World Series and All-Star Game, and football’s Super Bowl. Since the first televised World Series in 1947, Americans have regularly tuned in to watch the best-of-seven game championship between the two best teams in Major League Baseball (MLB). In 1968 Nielsen Media Research began recording game-by-game ratings of baseball’s World Series. Between 1968 and 2018, all 288 World Series games have been televised, 116 on FOX, 104 on NBC, 45 on ABC, and 23 on CBS.