Swapping out the Mets for the Nationals resulted in big declines for Game 5 of the National League Division Series.
Game 5 of the Dodgers/Nationals NLDS earned a 2.8 final rating and 4.5 million viewers on Fox Sports 1 Thursday night, down 38% in ratings and 39% in viewership from Mets/Dodgers on TBS last year (4.5, 7.4M). There was no comparable game in 2014.
The Dodgers’ win ranks as the least-watched primetime Game 5 in the Division Series since Tigers/A’s in 2012, which aired on TNT opposite concurrent playoff action on TBS (2.3M).
Figures do not include streaming viewership on Fox Sports GO or the Spanish-language audience on Fox Deportes. With those numbers added to the mix, the game had 4.8 million viewers.
Locally, Game 5 had a 10.3 rating in Washington D.C. and a 9.9 in Los Angeles, each market’s highest rating ever on FS1.
Though down big from last year, Thursday’s game did well by FS1 standards, ranking as its ninth-most watched FS1 program since rebranding from Speed Channel in 2013. Overall, FS1 averaged 3.7 million viewers for its nine NLDS telecasts — up 32% from its ALDS coverage last year (2.8M) and up 18% from its NLDS coverage in 2014 (3.1M).
(Numbers from Fox Sports, Programming Insider 10/14)
