The Red Sox’ return to the playoffs paid dividends for TBS.
Game 1 of the Red Sox/Indians American League Division Series earned a 2.9 final rating and 4.7 million viewers on TBS Thursday night, up 47% in ratings and 41% in viewership from Astros/Royals on Fox Sports 1 last year (2.0, 3.3M) and up 7% and 12%, respectively, from Royals/Angels on TBS in 2014 (2.7, 4.2M).
The Indians’ win ranks third among Division Series openers since 2010, trailing only a pair of games last year — Cubs/Cardinals (3.3, 5.4M) and Mets/Dodgers, which had a slightly higher rating (3.0) and viewership (4.71M to 4.66M).
Earlier in the day, Blue Jays/Rangers Game 1 had 1.8 million viewers — up 6% from Game 1 of the same series on FS1 last year (from 1.75M to 1.85M) but down 53% from Tigers/Orioles on TBS in 2014 (4.0M). Ratings were not immediately available. As is always the case for Blue Jays games, figures do not include Canadian viewership, which does not count toward U.S. television ratings.
(Thu. numbers via Programming Insider 10/7)
