MLB LCS ratings continued to decline Tuesday, but Red Sox-Astros delivered solid numbers for a weekday afternoon window.
Tuesday’s Red Sox-Astros American League Championship Series Game 3 earned a 3.0 rating and 4.87 million viewers on TBS, down 3% in ratings and 5% in viewership from Astros-Yankees on FS1 last year (3.1, 5.11M) but up 11% and 13% respectively from Indians-Blue Jays on TBS in 2016 (2.7, 4.30M). Those games aired on Monday nights.
Versus the same Tuesday afternoon window last year — Astros-Yankees Game 4 — ratings dropped a tick but viewership increased 3% from 4.74 million. Versus last year’s LCS Game 3 on TBS, Dodgers-Cubs in primetime, ratings fell 12% (from 3.4) and viewership 19% (from 6.01M).
Later Tuesday, Brewers-Dodgers Game 4 had a 2.5 and 4.09 million on FS1 — down 38% in ratings and 40% in viewership from last year on TBS (Dodgers-Cubs: 4.0, 6.79M) and down 26% and 30% respectively from 2016 on FS1 (Cubs-Dodgers: 3.4, 5.83M).
Compared to last year’s ALCS Game 4 on FS1, which as previously noted aired in the afternoon, ratings and viewership fell 19% and 14% respectively.
Red Sox-Astros was the highest rated and most-watched sporting event of the day, topping Brewers-Dodgers and both games of the NBA Opening Night doubleheader on TNT (the NBA games came out ahead in adults 18-34 and 18-49). Tuesday was the first time in recent memory that the LCS has earned a larger audience on a weekday afternoon than in primetime.
[Numbers from Nielsen via Programming Insider 10.17]
