The League Championship Series is putting in a poor performance for rightsholders TBS and FOX.
Several record lows have been set for both the NLCS and ALCS. Game 1 of the Indians/Red Sox series drew a 4.8 rating — very strong for a Friday night game with a 7:00 PM timeslot. The 4.8 marks a 21% decline from the 6.1 rating the comparable Cardinals/Mets game drew last year, and a 20% decline from Game 1 of the 2006 ALCS between the Tigers and Athletics. The 4.8 also makes Game 1 the lowest rated prime-time LCS game ever on broadcast. The previous record low for a prime-time game was 4.9. Despite the record low, the game did give FOX its highest rated, most watched Friday night since Game 5 of last year’s World Series.
Game 2 of the ALCS drew better numbers than Game 1, scoring a 5.7 rating on Saturday night. The 5.7 is a 16% increase over the 4.9 rating Game 3 of the Mets/Cardinals drew on the comparable date last year. Compared to last year’s ALCS, the 5.7 rating marks a 16% decline from Game 2 of Tigers/As, which aired on a Wednesday night.
Through two games, the ALCS is averaging a 5.3 rating, down 17% from the 6.4 average for the first two games of Tigers/As last year.
While the ALCS is putting up mixed numbers, there is no silver lining for the terrible ratings for the now-completed NLCS. Though Game 1 drew a healthy 3.6 rating on cable, Game 2 plummeted to a surprisingly low 2.2. The 2.2 rating is by far the lowest for any LCS game, and is the lowest rating for any playoff game so far this year. The game, which began at 10:00 PM ET, did not end until after 2:00 AM on the East Coast.
To put the 2.2 rating in perspective, no game of the Utah Jazz/San Antonio Spurs Western Conference Final series drew a rating that low.
Through three of the four games of the Rockies/Diamondbacks series, TBS averaged 4.5 million viewers. The 4.5 million viewers marks a 21% decline from the 5.7 million viewers TBS averaged during the Division Series. Additionally, the 4.5 million falls short of the 5 million for the NBA Eastern Conference Finals on TNT and the 5.8 million for six NASCAR races on TNT. The 4.5 is higher than the 4 million viewers ESPN averaged for its coverage of the Jazz/Spurs Western Conference Finals.
Despite big numbers in the Division Series, Turner cannot be happy with the way the MLB playoffs played out; TBS aired only sixteen of a possible 27 games, and only one series the network covered was not a sweep.
