Going into the proverbial 8th inning with a record-low audience average of 12.1 million viewers, it did not look good for one of sports TV programming's perennial tentpoles, the World Series. Pundits were examining a range of factors: was it the involvement of the small-market Kansas City Royals? Were the low-scoring post-steroid games too unexciting? Were people tuning into the NFL and Walking Dead instead? It might have been just as simple as this: none of the previous Major League Baseball playoff series this year were really that competitive. Wednesday's game seven of the World Series produced actual sports drama ... and ratings, with 23.5 million viewers tuning in to see the San Francisco Giants edge the Royals. The Los Angeles Times has a complete look at this clutch ratings performance right here.