MLB capped its least-watched League Championship Series with sports’ top non-NFL audience in ten months.
The Major League Baseball League Championship Series averaged approximately 3.58 million viewers across FOX, FS1 and TBS, down 30% from last year (5.13M) despite both series going seven games for the first time since 2004. This year marks the least-watched LCS on record.
Bucking the trend, Sunday’s Braves-Dodgers NLCS Game 7 averaged a 5.2 rating and 9.66 million across both FOX and FS1 (10.2M including Fox Deportes and streaming) — marking the highest rated and most-watched MLB telecast outside of the World Series since 2017, when Game 7 of the Yankees-Astros ALCS had a 5.4 and 9.92 million on FS1 alone.
The Dodgers’ win delivered sports’ largest non-NFL audience since the College Football Playoff in January, surpassing the previous high set a night earlier by the Georgia-Alabama college football game on CBS (9.61M). It also delivered the second-highest rating over that span, behind Georgia-Alabama (5.3).
Game 7 averaged more viewers than every game of the recently completed NBA season, including the NBA Finals — the first time since 2007 that an LCS game has outdrawn every NBA game. At the same time, the LCS averaged fewer viewers than the NBA conference finals (4.18M), and the postseason is averaging fewer viewers (2.30M) than the NBA Playoffs did entering the NBA Finals (2.61M). (The latter comparison includes MLB’s new Wild Card round; with that excluded, MLB comes out ahead at 2.68 million.)
Locally, Game 7 averaged an 18.5 rating in Los Angeles — the market’s highest for an LCS game since the Angels’ 2005 ALCS run. It also averaged a 21.1 in Atlanta, that market’s highest for a Braves game since 2004.
Compared to the previous NLCS Game 7, Dodgers-Brewers in 2018, ratings increased 28% (from 4.05) and viewership 32% (from 7.34M). Unlike this year’s game, which aired on broadcast television and had a direct lead-in from the NFL, the 2018 matchup was a Saturday night game on cable.
This year’s other LCS Game 7 — incidentally also a Saturday night game on cable — was a far weaker draw. Astros-Rays averaged a 2.3 and 4.50 million on TBS, easily the lowest rated and least-watched Game 7 in MLB history. Tampa Bay’s win aired directly opposite the previously mentioned Georgia-Alabama game.
Ratings and viewership sank 57 and 55 percent respectively from the previous ALCS Game 7, the previously noted Yankees-Astros game in 2017 (5.4, 9.92M).
Earlier Saturday, Braves-Dodgers Game 6 averaged a 2.15 and 4.28 million on FS1, down 37% in ratings and 26% in viewership from the previous NLCS Game 6 in 2018 (Dodgers-Brewers: 3.4, 5.78M). That game aired on a Friday night and faced no college football competition.
On Friday, Astros-Rays Game 6 averaged a 1.9 and 3.47 million on TBS — down 57% in ratings and 54% in viewership from last year’s Yankees-Astros Game 6 on FS1 (4.4, 7.47M). Dodgers-Braves Game 5 averaged a 1.9 and 3.61 million on FS1, down 21% and 4% respectively from the last NLCS Game 5 in 2018, a Wednesday afternoon game (2.4, 3.75M).
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 10.20, Fox Sports PR]
