Fox Sports 1 and MLB Network have attracted record numbers for the baseball playoffs, but TBS has been far and away the strongest draw.
Game 3 of the Angels/Royals American League Division Series drew 4.4 million viewers on TBS Sunday night, up 29% from Braves/Dodgers Game 3 Game 3 last year (3.4M) and up 3% from Tigers/Athletics Game 3 on a Tuesday night in 2012 (4.2M). The Royals’ series-clinching win earned the top audience of the Division Series through Monday and the third-best audience of the playoffs overall.
Orioles/Tigers Game 3 drew 3.3 million earlier in the day, up 12% from Cardinals/Pirates Game 3 last year (2.9M) but down 9% from Giants/Reds Game 3 in 2012 (3.6M).
Overall, six of the seven playoff games on TBS have had double-digit increases in viewership compared to last year. The only exception was Friday’s Royals/Angels Game 2, which had a 4% decline. TBS averaged 3.9 million viewers through the Division Series, even with last year when the network aired all four series — two of which went the full five games.
Shifting to the other networks, Game 3 of the Giants/Nationals NLDS drew 1.8 million on MLB Network Monday afternoon — the network’s most-watched program ever. The Nationals’ win edged the previous record set by Cardinals/Dodgers Game 2 on Saturday (1.84M to 1.77M). Versus the comparable day last year, viewership increased 102% from Athletics/Tigers in an earlier timeslot on MLB Network (912K), but declined 59% from Red Sox/Rays in the same timeslot on TBS (4.5M).
The Dodgers/Cardinals nightcap drew 2.9 million viewers on Fox Sports 1, down 26% from Braves/Dodgers Game 4 last year (3.9M) but up 9% Tigers/Athletics in 2012 (2.7M). Of the four playoff games on FS1, three rank among the network’s ten most-viewed programs since rebranding — but the same number have declined double-digits from last year.
Though each network has set multiple viewership records, five of the six playoff games on FS1 and MLB Network have declined double-digits from the comparable windows last year.
(Sun. numbers from TV By the Numbers, Mon. numbers from MLB.com, Fox Sports)
