Even with both teams in contention late in the season, the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry is still a shadow of what it used to be.
Yankees/Red Sox earned a 1.0 final rating and 1.5 million viewers on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball last weekend, marking the rivals’ least-watched SNB appearance in at least a decade — and likely further back. Compared to Yankees/Mets last year, ratings dropped 8% (1.05 to 0.97) and viewership 7% (from 1.6M).
Ratings and viewership did increase 40% and 31%, respectively, from Yankees/Orioles in 2014 (0.7, 1.1M).
The previous day, regional MLB action featuring Yankees/Red Sox in 88% of markets scored a 1.2 and 1.7 million on FOX — down 14% in ratings and viewership from coverage featuring Yankees/Mets last year (1.4, 2.0M) but up a third and 34%, respectively, from 2014 (0.9, 1.3M).
The 1.2 is not the rivals’ lowest rating on FOX. A matchup on the final weekend of the 2014 season, the penultimate game in the career of Yankees SS Derek Jeter, had a mere 0.8 rating on the network — at the time the lowest ever for baseball on broadcast television.
In other recent MLB action, Tigers/Indians earned 536,000 viewers on Fox Sports 1 last Saturday (-3%) and 183,000 on TBS the following day (-26%). Diamondbacks/Padres had just 123,000 on FS1 Monday night; there was no comparable window last year.
On ESPN, Giants/Dodgers had 424,000 viewers on Tuesday night — down 57% from Yankees/Blue Jays in an earlier window last year (981K) — and 651,000 on Wednesday (+13%). Red Sox/Orioles delivered 659,000 in Wednesday’s early window, off 37% from Yankees/Blue Jays last year (1.1M) but up 12% from Nationals/Braves in 2014 (588K).
(Numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 9/20, 9/21, 9/22, Sports TV Ratings 9/20)
