With the San Francisco Giants jumping out to a three-run lead in their first at-bat en route to a 7-1 thrashing of the Kansas City Royals, Game 1 of the 2014 World Series marked an all-time audience lower for the opener of a Fall Classic.

Fox’s coverage of the Oct. 22 contest from Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, which was dominated by Giants starter Madison Bumgarner (pictured) averaged a 7.3 rating and 12.19 million watchers, according to Nielsen fast nationals data. That was slightly below the 12.24 for the first game between the Giants and Detroit Tigers in 2012, and down 15% from the 14.44 million for last year’s matchup between the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals.

Still, Tuesday’s World Series telecast was Fox’s highest-rated and most-watched primetime telecast since an episode of American Idol in February.

From 8:05 p.m. to 11 p.m. Fox averaged a 7.7 rating with 12.8 million viewers, and once final nationals are issued, the network is projected to win the night in primetime among adults 18 to 49. That, according to network officials, would mark its top Tuesday night performance since February 2012.

On Fox Deportes, Game 1 played large, averaging 273,000 viewers the most ever for a World Series game in Spanish-language TV history. That marked a 77% jump from the 154,000 for last year’s Series starter.

Tallying Fox and Fox Deportes, Game 1 drew 12.5 million watchers, edging past the 2012 average.

Kansas City led all markets, posting a 48.2 rating/68 share, the best rating for World Series Game 1 in any market since 2007, while San Francisco registered a 29.3/50.  Sacramento posted a 23.0/37, followed by St. Louis (13.3/20) and Las Vegas (11.1/19) to round out the top five.  

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.

(Updated: Oct. 16, 1:01 a.m.: With the Royals dispatching with the Orioles in four and the Giants plucking the Cards 6-4 to move within one game of the Fall Classic, so much for the Orange Is The New Black theory,,,How about the frst-ever Wild Card World Series under MLB's new format?)

Before the first pitch was thrown out on the 2014 MLB postseason  party -- and prior to the Kansas City Royals starting to evoke the 2002 California Angels -- there were plenty of monikered World Series in play.

Bay Bridge: The potential San Franciso Giants-Oakland A’s fight fell on the playoffs’ first night with Billy Beane’s go-for it version of Money Ball cratering behind a series of KC rallies on TBS, culminating with Salvador Perez’s spinner down the third-base line that yielded the first of four Royals’ extra-innings’ wins to date. Even Ernie Johnson didn’t miss that one.

Rust Belt Review: The Pirates and PNC Park went quietly after Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford connected on a fourth-inning grand slam in ESPN’s first trip to the postseason since 2006.  So much for the chance of the Buccos plundering Detroit’s pizza-purchased Cy Young triumvirate.

Freeway:  What could have been a matchup of the game’s next faces in the post-Jeter era crashed behind more Royals’ magic that made Mike Trout’s first postseason appearance far from Angelic and the St. Louis Cardinals’ hold on Clayton Kershaw that transformed this generation’s Cy Young into Ken Clay, not Sandy Koufax.

The Dodgers, the best team Time Warner Cable’s money could buy, didn’t get any favors from some questionable decisions from Donnie Baseball, as Mattingly’s non-World Series streak as a manager continues to grow beyond his one shot as a Yankees' player.

LA's exit also ended any chance of the 5 Drive to San Francisco in the NLCS. Or for those who espouse the palaver about the game’s length, the Pacific Coast Highway Pacer.

Beltway: Those in the Baltimore-DC metroplex had high hopes for a MASN-Angelos- Animus encounter. But the Nats bats ran cold, save for Bryce Harper, who seemed poised to oust brand names Mickey Mantle, Andruw Jones and Miggy Cabrera from the record books. Each swatted four postseason homers by the time they celebrated their 22nd birthday.

The Giants took care of that piece of business with three tight wins, including a 3-2 triumph in 18 innings during MLB's longest postseason battle. The 6-hour, 23-minute marathon showed there was still some Nielsen life in the old ballgame as its audience grew over the innings and against the teeth of the college football day and night.

So of MLB’s Moniker Matchups that leaves only the Show Me Series, a rematch of the 1985 Don Dekinger-Jorge Orta-Todd Worrell error that cost the Redbirds a clinching victory in Game 6. The Royals seized the ninth-inning opening that night and claimed their only title with a 11-0 whitewash of Herzog’s crew in Game 7.

Geographic proximity be damned, that Series averaged 34.5 million watchers on ABC. Of course, that was long before cable had really taken root and football had ascended to its full dominance of the American sports landscape. Given the Classic’s Fall over the past decade, Fox execs would kneel before the Nielsen gods for half of that.

Despite the Royals’ resilience and win in the 10th in Game One of the ALCS at Camden Yards,  I still like Buck Showalter’s bunch to reach his first World Series and the O’s to return to the Fall Classic for the first time since 1983.

As far for the Giants-Cardinals, the battle for senior circuit and sabemetrics domination, is on the line. The Redbirds are looking for a return trip, after playing poorly in their loss to Boston in last year's championship, and a third crown since 2006.

But, it’s an even year this decade, so it’s the Giants turn, right?

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Just call it the Orange Is the New Black Series.

Despite the lopsided result on the diamond, ESPN’s inaugural MLB Wild Card telecast shined as the most-watched and highest-rated game for the sport’s recent playoff format.

ESPN’s first swing in Major League Baseball’s postseason since 2006 delivered a record 3.6 U.S. rating and 5.59 million viewers for the National League Wild Card game, according to Nielsen fast nationals data.

Coverage of the Giants’ 8-0 win on Oct. 1, which ended the Pirates season, surpassed the 5.23 million viewers on TBS, who watched the Kansas City Royals’ exciting 9-8, 12th inning win over the Oakland A’s by 7%. Giants-Pirates -- San Francisco jumped out to a 4-0 lead on Brandon Crawford's fourth-inning Grand Slam (pictured)  -- was up 22% in viewership and 20% in ratings compared to the 2013 NL Wild Card telecast on TBS in which the Pirates topped the Cincinnati Reds.

MLB introduced the 10-team playoff format that includes a Wild Card game in both the senior and junior circuits during the 2012 playoffs.

The Giants-Pirates contest was also the most-viewed MLB game ever on WatchESPN with more than 9.9 million total minutes viewed and an average minute audience of 48,589. Those figures were 126% higher for total minutes and 156% higher for average minute audience than the previous WatchESPN record with baseball.

Coverage of the New York Giants-Washington game drove CBS to its most-watched premiere week Thursday since 2007.

CBS and NFL Network’s presentation of the Giants' 45-14 trouncing of the Redskins earned a 10.2 rating and 16.3 million viewers, a 92% jump from the 5.3 mark and 8.3 million watchers for the Sept. 26, 2013 matchup between San Francisco-St. Louis on pro football league’s in-house service and the over-the-air station in the participating teams DMAs. The audience was most likely reduced by the 1.25 million in the New York DMA who watched Derek Jeter's final game at Yankee Stadium on YES.

In primetime, CBS/NFLN’s broadcast gave Black Rock its most-watched and highest-rated premiere week Thursday since 2007 -- Survivor China, CSI, Without a Trace.  Compared to premiere Thursday last year, CBS/NFL Network was up 6% in viewers (15.4 million vs. 14.5 million); 9% in household rating (9.6 vs. 8.8); 47% among adults 18 to 49 (5.6 vs. 3.8); and 20% among adults 25 to 54 (6.1 vs. 5.1). (CBS and NFL Network are reporting audience data for the game and related programming, the way it was sold to advertisers, as a gross rating from CBS and NFL Network.)

Despite three blowouts, CBS/NFL Network has averaged a  10 rating/17 share, 56% above last year’s 6.4/11, and 16.1 million viewers, 59% more than last year’s 10.1 million, when the games only appeared on the cable network and broadcast affiliates in the participating clubs’ DMAs.