The Yankees/Red Sox rivalry gave ESPN a lift last weekend. In other news, FS1 scored its smallest MLB audience of the young season, and the Kentucky Derby draw had a steep decline on NBCSN.
Yankees/Red Sox Up on ESPN
- Yankees/Red Sox had a 1.5 final rating and 2.4 million viewers on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball last weekend, flat in ratings and up 7% in viewership from the same matchup last year (1.5, 2.3M), flat and up 11%, respectively, from Angels/Yankees in 2014 (1.5, 2.2M), and the second-most watched game of the season. Mets/Royals on Opening Night holds the top spot (2.9M). In other action, Cubs/Pirates had 699,000 on Monday and Red Sox/White Sox 599,000 on Wednesday — down 19% and up 53%, respectively, from last year’s comparable matchups of Cubs/Cardinals (869K) and Orioles/Mets (365K).
FS1 Hits MLB Season-Low
- Last Saturday’s Giants/Mets Major League Baseball game scored 280,000 viewers on Fox Sports 1, up 51% from Angels/Giants last year (185K) but down 37% from Pirates/Cardinals in 2014 (446K). It ranks as the network’s least-watched game of the young season (eight telecasts). In other recent action on FS1, the April 26 Cardinals/Diamondbacks game scored 345,000.
Kentucky Derby Draw Down Big
- The Kentucky Derby draw earned 121,000 viewers on NBCSN Wednesday evening, down 36% from last year (190K) but up 21% from 2014 (100K). The show was a half-hour long for the second straight year, after running a full-hour previously.
(Numbers via Programming Insider [1], [2], [3], Sports TV Ratings [1], [2], [3])
