THE all-California World Series is already behind in the count.
After two exciting games, the audience for the Anaheim Angels-San Francisco Giants series is down 16 percent from the first two games last year when the Yankees played the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The World Series was still strong enough to be the most-watched programs of the night on both Saturday and Sunday.
But the steady decline in audience continues for the Fall Classic.
Saturday night’s game was seen by about 15 million viewers – almost 10 percent less than last year’s Game 1.
Sunday night’s game, that was full of dramatic home runs and ended after midnight on the East Coast, was seen by about 19.4 million – or almost 21 percent lower than the 2001 series’ second game.
Fox, which is broadcasting the series this year, had been hoping viewers would tune in to see two teams which had beaten long odds to make to it to the Series.
Another draw is Barry Bonds, considered by many as the game’s top player – who had never made it to the World Series before.
Like most televised professional sports, the ratings for the World Series have historically gotten lower every year.
But since this year’s matchup is between two teams from the same state, some industry experts suspected that telecasts could be low rated just like the 2000 Subway Series between the Yankees and the Mets was.
Despite rabid interest in New York – the largest TV market in the country – with an average of 18 million viewers that series turned out to be the lowest rated World Series in history.
Last year when the Yankees lost to Arizona, about 24 million people tuned in.
Fox is a division of News Corp., which also owns The Post.