Day one of the MLB Division Series was a mixed bag in the ratings.
Thursday’s Rockies-Brewers National League Division Series Game 1 earned a 1.6 rating and 2.46 million viewers on FS1, up 24% in viewership from the same window on MLB Network last year (Red Sox-Astros: n/a, 1.99M) and up 23% and 32% respectively from 2016 on TBS (Blue Jays-Rangers: 1.3, 1.86M).
As should be no surprise, ratings fell 30% (from 2.3) and viewership 35% (from 3.79M) compared to FS1’s first postseason game last year — Yankees-Indians in primetime.
The Brewers’ extra-inning win peaked with 3.55 million viewers.
Later in the night, MLB Network drew a 1.3 and 2.1 million for Braves-Dodgers — down 43% in ratings and 44% in viewership from last year’s aforementioned Yankees-Indians game and down 55% in both measures from 2016 on TBS (Red Sox-Indians: 2.9, 4.67M).
Versus MLB Network’s first game of last year’s postseason — the previously-noted Red Sox-Astros Game 1 — viewership increased 7%.
The Dodgers’ drama-free win delivered the third-largest Major League Baseball audience ever on MLB Network, trailing last year’s Yankees-Indians Game 2 (3.20M) and Game 2 of Giants-Cubs in 2016 (4.61M).
Both games trailed last year’s NLDS openers, which aired on TBS on a Friday night. Cubs-Nationals had 3.50 million viewers and D’Backs-Dodgers 2.94 million.
[Numbers from Nielsen via Programming Insider 10.5; Fox Sports PR/Twitter 10.5]
