The two best teams in the National League delivered some of MLB’s worst national TV numbers in years.
Regional Major League Baseball action featuring Dodgers-Nationals in 81% of markets had a 0.7 rating and 1.05 million viewers on FOX Saturday, down 42% in ratings and 38% in viewership from last year (1.2, 1.7M) and down 50% and 46% respectively from 2015 (1.4, 2.0M).
The 0.7 rating is tied as the lowest on record for Major League Baseball on broadcast television, matching Rays-Yankees last year, a primetime matchup that aired opposite the Olympics. It did not set a viewership low, coming in ahead of that Rays-Yankees telecast (1.02M).
The same Dodgers-Nationals matchup pulled a 0.55 rating (-43%) and 855,000 (-42%) on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball, the series’ smallest audience since Mets-Nationals in 2013 (853K). That excludes a Royals-Orioles game two years ago that was pushed to ESPN2 due to a delayed tennis match (442K).
The Nationals have played in the two least-watched SNB games this season, and the three-least watched over the past five seasons.
In other action, ESPN scored 795,000 for Twins-Yankees on Tuesday and 424,000 for abbreviated coverage of Indians-Angels afterward (even). Fox Sports 1 drew 480,000 viewers for Royals-Indians on Saturday (-10%) and TBS scored 303,000 for Cardinals-Cubs on Sunday (+66%).
[Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 9.19, Nielsen]
