Not even back-to-back blowouts could slow the ratings roll of the Men’s College World Series.
Monday’s Game 3 of the Men’s College World Series Final (LSU-Florida) averaged a 1.9 rating and 3.59 million viewers across ESPN (3.43M) and ESPNU (158K), marking the largest College World Series audience ever on the ESPN networks (regardless of gender). Viewership more-than-doubled the previous Game 3 two years ago, Mississippi State-Vanderbilt on ESPN2 (1.69M).
LSU’s 14-run rout, which peaked early at 4.2 million from 8:30-8:45 PM ET, topped the previous high of 3.16 million set for the Tigers’ 2009 title-clincher against Texas.
The Tigers have now played in five of the six most-watched CWS games ever on ESPN, with Saturday’s Game 1 ranking fourth (2.74M) and the other two games of the 2009 final ranking fifth (Game 2: 2.62M) and sixth (Game 1: 2.50M). North Carolina-Oregon State Game 3 in 2006 (2.79M) is the only non-LSU game in the top six.
Most-watched College World Series games ever on ESPN networks
Game 3 also delivered the second-largest baseball audience of the year, trailing only the Japan-United States World Baseball Classic final on FS1 and Fox Deportes in March (4.97M). Both Games 1 and 3 outdrew the top Major League Baseball audience of the year, 2.56 million for a FOX regional window featuring Red Sox-Yankees.
For the night, Game 3 was television’s most-watched show on any network and dominated the key adult demographics.
The full three-game LSU-Florida series averaged 2.86 million viewers, up three-fourths from Mississippi’s sweep of Oklahoma last year and the most-watched CWS final ever on the ESPN networks. The previous high was 2.76 million for the aforementioned 2009 series.
Sunday’s Game 2 was the least-watched of the series, but Florida’s 20-run rout of LSU still delivered the third-largest men’s CWS audience in the past seven years (2.25M).
The full Men’s College World Series averaged 1.65 million viewers, up 48% from last year and a record for the event on the ESPN family of networks. LSU’s eight games were the most-watched of the tournament.
Monday marked the second time this year that LSU won a national championship in front of a record viewing audience, as the women’s basketball team defeated Iowa in front of a record audience of 9.9 million on ABC and ESPN2 in April.
(Nielsen estimates from Programming Insider 6.27, ShowBuzz Daily 6.27 a, b, network PR)
