Despite a sorely needed bump Thursday night, MLB’s League Championship Series have been plumbing the ratings depths.
Thursday’s Dodgers-Braves National League Championship Series Game 4 averaged 5.04 million viewers across FOX and FS1, marking the most-watched NLCS Game 4 in three years (2017 Dodgers-Cubs: 6.79M). Viewership increased 9% from Cardinals-Nationals on TBS last year (4.64M) and 23% from Brewers-Dodgers on FS1 alone in 2018 (4.09M).
The Braves’ win delivered the largest audience of the MLB season, topping the previous high of 4.20 million for Game 1 of the series Monday night. That game aired on FOX alone. Excluding NFL games, it ranks 14th among live sportscasts since the wave of cancellations and postponements in March.
Game 4 was a late addition to the FOX schedule after the network’s scheduled Thursday Night Football game was postponed. It was just the seventh LCS game on broadcast television in the last seven years.
The schedule change gave MLB a rare boost in what has otherwise been a poor start to the LCS. Wednesday’s NLCS Game 3 averaged just 2.09 million viewers on FS1 (-43%) — the third-smallest LCS audience on record, ahead of only Games 1 and 2 of this year’s ALCS — and Tuesday’s Game 2 was only slightly better 2.46 million (-19%).
Shifting to the ALCS, Thursday’s Rays-Astros Game 5 averaged 2.71 million on TBS (-52%), with Wednesday’s Game 4 at 2.72 million (-54%) and Tuesday’s Game 3 at 2.12 million (-45%).
Through Thursday, seven of this year’s nine LCS games have averaged fewer than three million viewers — matching all previous years combined. The five least-watched LCS games on record, and seven of the bottom 11, have come this year.
The weak numbers are no surprise in what has been a rough year for the industry. Baseball’s declines are reminiscent of those suffered by the NBA, NHL, and any number of other properties. Like the other sports, MLB has faced unusual competition — including competing presidential town halls on Thursday night, a Tuesday night NFL game, and the clinching Game 6 of the NBA Finals last Sunday.
To put the numbers in perspective, viewership for last month’s NBA conference finals ranged from a low of 3.02 million (Nuggets-Lakers Game 2 opposite Sunday Night Football) to a high of 4.92 million (Nuggets-Lakers Game 1).
