The Cubs’ season opener attracted more local eyeballs. In other news, ESPN’s Wednesday Night Baseball schedule opened with a pair of declines, and the U.S. soccer national teams have done relatively well as of late.
Cubs’ Opener Up in Chicago
- Monday’s Cubs/Angels Major League Baseball game drew an 8.0 rating on Chicago ABC affiliate WLS, the network’s highest Cubs rating since it began televising games last season. The rating topped last year’s Cardinals/Cubs opener, which aired on ESPN (7.6). (Chicago Tribune)
Slow Start For ESPN’s Wednesday Night Baseball
- White Sox/Athletics scored 451,000 viewers on the latest edition of ESPN’s Wednesday Night Baseball, down 17% from Padres/Dodgers last year (543K). There was no comparable window in 2014. Earlier in the night, Phillies/Reds had 416,000 — down a third from Red Sox/Phillies last year (619K) and down 24% from Phillies/Rangers in 2014 (549K). On Thursday, Fox Sports 1 scored 371,000 for its Rangers/Angels season opener — well below its first telecast last year, Red Sox/Yankees on a Saturday afternoon (521K). (ShowBuzz Daily [1], [2])
USWNT Friendly Up Big; U.S. Men Hit ’16 High
- Wednesday’s United States/Colombia women’s soccer friendly drew 296,000 viewers on Fox Sports 1, up 145% from the second USWNT friendly last year, a February match against England (121K). It was the squad’s second-largest audience of the season, behind a CONCACAF Olympic qualifier against Trinidad & Tobago (329K). In other recent action, the March 29 USA/Guatemala men’s World Cup qualifier had 954,000 on ESPN — the top USMNT audience of the year (four telecasts). The same match had 938,000 on UniMas, bringing the total to 1.9 million. (ShowBuzz, ESPN Media Zone, Sports Business Daily)
