Ratings slipped for Major League Baseball’s Opening Night.
Sunday’s Yankees/Red Sox game drew a 2.0 U.S. rating and 3.2 million viewers on ESPN2, down 5% in ratings and 2% in viewership from Braves/Phillies last year (2.1, 3.3 mil) and down 17% and 12%, respectively, from Braves/Nationals in ’08 (2.4, 3.7 mil).
The game was blacked out in the New York and Boston markets.
Excluding the rained out 2006 game, this marks the lowest rated MLB Opening Night telecast since Red Sox/Orioles in ’04 (1.5).
Yankees/Red Sox was outdrawn on Sunday night by the Connecticut/Baylor Women’s NCAA Tournament game (2.4, 3.8 mil).
That said, the game did well relative to its cable competition, finishing as the 6th-most viewed program of the night on cable and the #1 program among adults 18-49 and all key male demographics.
(ESPN, pifeedback.com)
