Cleveland’s winning streak delivered record ratings locally, but not so much nationally.
Record Ratings For Cleveland Streak
Thursday’s Indians-Royals Major League Baseball game, the final win of Cleveland’s 22-game winning streak, had a 20.44 rating on SportsTime Ohio — the team’s highest rating ever on the RSN. The previous high was a 19.58 for White Sox-Indians on Opening Day. The Indians are now averaging an 8.16 rating for the season (+28%) including an 11.45 thus far in September. Going back to last Sunday night, ESPN’s Orioles-Indians telecast pulled a 14.9 in Cleveland, the market’s highest for a game on the network since 1999.
Less Pull For Cleveland Nationally
The aforementioned Orioles-Indians Sunday Night Baseball game pulled a mere 0.6 rating and 982,000 viewers on ESPN nationally, down a tick in ratings and 8% in viewership from Cubs-Astros last year (0.7, 1.1M). It was the second-least watched Sunday night game all season, no surprise given it aired opposite the premiere of NBC’s Sunday Night Football. On Wednesday night, Dodgers-Giants delivered 571,000 (+21%) and A’s-Red Sox 559,000 (-25%).
