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.  

(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?

,

Just call it the Orange Is the New Black Series.

TBS’s American League Division Series opening doubleheader averaged more than 4 million viewers on Thursday.

The network averaged 4.1 million watchers on Oct. 2 with its presentation of Baltimore’s bashing of Detroit and Kansas City’s latest extra inning triumph, this time over the Los Angeles Angels, according to Nielsen fast nationals data. That was up 32% from the 3.1 for the comparable day of the 2013 MLB postseason, when the National League Division Series twinbill of Pittsburgh-St. Louis and LA Dodgers-Atlanta averaged 3.1 million watchers in the same windows.

The junior circuit doubleheader, which squared off against CBS/NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football mismatch between Green Bay and Minnesota and ESPN’s college football doubleheader that included No. 2 Oregon losing to Arizona in the late-starting nightcap, delivered a 2.6 U.S. rating, up 30% from a 2.0 mark in 2013.

The ALDS coverage gave TBS night in cable, based on metered market ratings, and drove it to a 25% jump among persons 18 to 49 and 16% with guys of that age.

Game 1 between the Orioles and Tigers averaged a 2.5 rating, up 47% from a 1.7 for Cards-Pirates and 4 million total viewers, up 54% from 2.6 million last year. The telecast peaked with a 3.3 rating and 5.4 million total viewers in the 8:15 p.m. quarter hour (ET).

Locally, the telecast posted a 17.3 HH rating in the Baltimore DMA and a 16.0 in Detroit.

The starter of the other ALDS, in which the Royals prevailed 3-2 over the Angels in the 11th, averaged 4.2 million total viewers, up 20%  from the 3.5 million viewers for the network’s Dodgers-Braves telecast last year. Thursday’s nightcap scored a 17% gain to a 2.7 rating from a 2.3%

 The telecast earned a 30.8 in Kansas City – the highest rating for an MLB game in the market on record  (dating back to 1998) – and an 8.5 HH rating in L.A. 

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.

One of baseball’s most exciting postseason contests drove TBS to a double-digit gain with its coverage of American League Wild Card action on Tuesday night.

TBS’s exclusive coverage of the Kansas City's ’ 9-8 win over Oakland in the 12th inning --it was the Royals' first playoff appearance since 1985 -- scored a 3.3 U.S. household rating, translating into 5.23 million viewers on average, according to Nielsen fast nationals data.

Those Sept. 30 deliveries represented respective gains of 10% and 14% from the 3.0 and 4.6 million viewers for the corresponding opener of the 2013 MLB playoffs -- the National League Wild Card game won by the Pittsburgh Pirates over the Cincinnati Reds, which also aired on a Tuesday night.

In addition to propelling TBS to win the night in cable, Royals-A’s scored a 10% increase over the 3.0 average for both Wild Card telecasts on the network iin 2013, and a 12% gain above the 4.7 million for last year’s pair that also included Cleveland’s win over Tampa in the junior circuit.

Under MLB’s new rights deal, ESPN returns to the postseason for the first time since 2006 with its coverage of Wednesday night’s Pirates-San Francisco Giants senior circuit Wild Card affair.

The 2014 MLB postseason will continue on TBS – home of the American League throughout the postseason – with an A.L. Division Series doubleheader on Thursday, Oct. 4.  The network’s live game coverage of the openers of the best-of-five game series will feature the Detroit Tigers visiting the Baltimore Orioles at 5:30 p.m., followed by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim hosting Kansas City at 9 p.m.