Regular season baseball managed to steal some of the spotlight from playoff games in the NBA and NHL over the weekend.
Regional Major League Baseball coverage, featuring the Mets’ 20-inning win over the Cardinals, drew a 3.0 overnight rating on FOX Saturday afternoon and evening, up 11% from a 2.7 last year (mostly Indians/Yankees).
Mets/Cardinals, which aired in 61% of television markets, did not end until after 11 PM ET — preempting primetime and local news programming and portions of the late night Wanda Sykes Show.
Markets that did not receive Mets/Cardinals saw regularly scheduled programming.
Saturday’s 3.0 overnight is the highest for a regular season MLB telecast on FOX since coverage featuring Yankees/Red Sox drew a 3.1 last August.
According to Sports Business Daily, the 3.0 is the highest overnight for a non-Yankees/Red Sox regular season game on FOX since June 2008.
Mets/Cardinals averaged a 6.5 in New York (with a peak of 11.1) and an 18.3 in St. Louis (with a peak of 29.3).
