With the Yankees and Cubs exiting early, MLB League Championship Series have been on the decline.
Monday’s Brewers-Dodgers National League Championship Series Game 3 earned 4.21 million viewers on FS1, down 30% from Dodgers-Cubs on TBS last year (6.01M) and down 35% from Cubs-Dodgers on FS1 in 2016 (6.51M). Those games aired on Tuesday nights. Ratings were not immediately available.
Compared to last year’s Astros-Yankees ALCS Game 3 on FS1, which aired in the same Monday night window, viewership fell 18% from 5.11 million.
The Brewers’ win delivered the smallest NLCS audience since Cardinals-Giants Game 3 in 2014 (2.78M). Several ALCS games have earned a smaller audience since 2014, all involving the Blue Jays, whose home Toronto audience does not count toward U.S. TV ratings.
Game 3 was no aberration. Saturday’s Game 2 had a 2.8 rating and 4.65 million on FOX — down 24% in ratings and 31% in viewership from last year’s NLCS on TBS (3.7, 6.76M) and down 32% and 36% from the 2016 NLCS on FS1 (4.1, 7.31M). Those games aired on Sunday nights.
Versus Yankees-Astros in the same Saturday afternoon window last year, ratings fell 26% (from 3.8) and viewership 25% (from 6.22M).
The series opened with a 2.7 (-23%) and 4.64 million (-27%) last Friday, marking the lowest rated and least-watched NLCS Game 1 since the Brewers’ previous appearance — in 2011 against the Cardinals (2.1, 3.35M). Overall, ratings and viewership were the third-lowest on record for any LCS opener, ahead of the 2011 game and Blue Jays-Indians in ’16 (2.5, 4.12M).
Ratings have been stronger for the ALCS, but still no match for last year. Astros-Red Sox Game 2 earned a 3.1 rating and 5.67 million viewers on TBS Sunday night, down 18% in ratings and 9% in viewership from last year’s aforementioned Yankees-Astros Game 2 on FOX, but up 82% and 117% respectively from 2016 (Blue Jays-Indians: 1.7, 2.61M).
Compared to last year’s NLCS Game 2 in the same window, ratings and viewership fell 16%.
As previously noted, Game 1 posted a modest decline with a 3.3 rating (-8%) and 5.82 million viewers (-5%).
Through Monday, all five MLB LCS games have declined from last year — regardless of whether one is comparing on a league-to-league or window-to-window basis. Keep in mind two of the five games have had unusually tough local competition, with the Red Sox going up against a Patriots game on Sunday night and the Brewers facing a Packers game Monday.
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 10.16 a, b, Programming Insider 10.16]
