The Cubs and Yankees delivered some of ESPN’s strongest MLB ratings of the season.
Nationals-Cubs delivered a 1.25 rating and 1.95 million viewers on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball last weekend, down 26% in ratings and 24% in viewership from Red Sox-Yankees last year (1.7, 2.6M) but up 25% and 22% respectively from Cardinals-Cubs in 2016 (1.0, 1.6M).
Excluding Yankees games, the Cubs’ walk-off, grand slam win was the most-watched MLB telecast on ESPN since Giants-Dodgers on Opening Night (1.97M).
On Monday, ESPN scored a 1.0 and 1.52 million for a Mets-Yankees make-up game — up 43% in ratings and 55% in viewership from the same matchup last year (0.7, 982K). This year’s game was originally scheduled for Sunday Night Baseball last month and thus aired exclusively on ESPN. Last year’s game co-existed with local RSNs.
The Mets’ win posted the third-largest weekday audience of the season, behind Cardinals-Cubs last month (1.1, 1.7M) and the aforementioned Giants-Dodgers Opening Night game. Those games were also exclusive to ESPN.
In other action, FS1 drew a 0.33 and 489,000 for Brewers-Braves Saturday night and a 0.25 and 381,000 (-10%) for Nationals-Cubs earlier in the day.
TBS scored 249,000 for Mariners-Astros Sunday afternoon, down 16% from last year (Indians-Rays: 295K) and down 2% from 2016 (Angels-Indians: 254K).
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 8.14, Programming Insider 8.14]
