Take a small market team against a Canadian opponent, add a fledgling network with limited distribution, and put it in a weekday afternoon timeslot, and one has the perfect recipe for record-low viewership.
Game 5 of the Royals/Blue Jays American League Championship Series drew 2.6 million viewers on Fox Sports 1 Wednesday afternoon, down 47% from Cardinals/Giants last year (4.9M) and down 70% from Red Sox/Tigers on FOX in 2013 (8.6M), both of which aired on Thursday nights. The rating was not immediately available.
The Blue Jays’ win ranks as the least-watched LCS telecast ever in the U.S., falling slightly below the previous mark set by Game 4 of the series the previous day (from 2.60M to 2.58M). The Royals/Blue Jays series has already generated the three smallest LCS audiences ever, with Saturday’s Game 2 ranking third (2.7M).
Fox Sports 1 has now aired five of the six least-watched LCS games, no small feat given the network has aired only eight total. Keep in mind FS1 is in more than ten million fewer homes than TBS, and 30 million fewer than the FOX broadcast network.
(Wed. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily)
