A banner-raising 108 years in the making was a much stronger draw than usual on Monday.
Dodgers-Cubs earned a 1.2 final rating and 1.8 million viewers on the latest edition of ESPN’s Monday Night Baseball, the network’s largest MLB regular season audience on a weeknight since 2012. ESPN held exclusive rights to the game, which did not begin until 10 PM ET due to rain.
Viewership for the Cubs’ win increased 179% from Marlins-Mets last year (679K) and 102% from Yankees-Orioles in 2015 (899K).
Coverage of the Cubs’ banner raising actually pulled better numbers than the actual game, scoring a 1.4 and 2.3 million on a 50-minute edition of Baseball Tonight.
In a rarity, Monday’s game outdrew Sunday Night Baseball the previous night. Marlins-Mets had a 1.1 and 1.7 million, down 27% in ratings and 24% in viewership from Red Sox-Yankees two years ago (1.5, 2.3M). Last year’s comparable game was rained out.
In other national MLB action, Fox Sports 1 drew a 0.2 (-33%) and 360,000 (-34%) for Yankees-Orioles on Saturday afternoon.
