Phillies-Braves is top draw of quiet MLB Division Series

After double-digit declines in the Wild Card round, ratings have yet to turn around in the Division Series.

The Major League Baseball Division Series was averaging 2.78 million viewers through Tuesday (10 games), down 15% from the same number of games last year (3.28M). The 15% decline actually constitutes an improvement as viewership was down nearly 30 percent through the first two days, which took place on a football weekend as opposed to midweek last year.

The Phillies-Braves series ranks as easily the most-watched thus far with a combined average of 4.05 million across TBS and truTV — up 19% from the first two games of last year’s NLDS between the same teams on FOX (3.41M). By comparison, Diamondbacks-Dodgers, Rangers-Orioles and Astros-Twins were averaging 2.39, 2.45 and 2.50 million respectively.

The series accounts for two of the three largest audiences so far this postseason and — including the Wild Card Series — Philadelphia has played in four of the top five. Monday’s thrilling Game 2 averaged a 2.2 rating and postseason-high 4.27 million viewers (TBS: 3.55M; truTV: 722K) and Saturday’s opener ranks third at a 1.8 and 3.84 million (TBS: 3.31M; truTV: 523K).

Sandwiched between, Tuesday’s Orioles-Rangers Game 3 averaged a 2.3 and 4.14 million on FOX (4.23M across all Fox platforms) — the most-watched LDS Game 3 on any network since Red Sox-Yankees on TBS in 2018 (4.41M). Keep in mind it was the first such game on broadcast television since 2006.

The Rangers’ clinching win averaged a 10.5 rating and 31 share in Dallas-Ft. Worth — the market’s highest MLB rating since Game 7 of the 2019 World Series — and a 9.0/24 in Baltimore.

Monday’s Diamondbacks-Dodgers Game 2 ranks fourth for the postseason with 2.74 million viewers on TBS and TruTV, followed by Tuesday’s Astros-Twins Game 3 on FOX at a 1.5 and 2.72 million (2.81M across all platforms). The latter game averaged a 12.0 rating and 41 share in Minneapolis-St. Paul and a 9.3/35 in Houston.

As previously noted, the opening weekend of play is largely responsible for the declines from last year. Games on Saturday and Sunday averaged 2.34 million viewers, down 29% from last year’s equivalent Tuesday and Wednesday games (3.31M). Rangers-Orioles Game 2 delivered a postseason-low 0.8 and 1.60 million on FS1 opposite the NFL last Sunday, and Game 1 the previous day also clocked in under two million (1.0, 1.94M).

Rounding out the opening weekend slate, Diamondbacks-Dodgers opened with a 1.1 and 2.07 million on TBS and truTV last Saturday night; Twins-Astros opened with a 1.2 and 2.49 million on Saturday and a 1.2 and 2.28 million on Sunday, both on FS1.

(Nielsen estimates from Fox and WBD PR, this website 10.10, Programming Insider 10.10)

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Jon Lewis

Jon Lewis has been covering the sports media industry on a daily basis since 2006 as the founder and main writer of Sports Media Watch. You can contact him here or on the social media websites X (Twitter) or Bluesky.

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Comments 7

Jose Stratton says:

3 years ago

Fox is also making mistakes with College Football as Top 10 matchups are moved to 12 noon starts instead of Primetime for the Big Ten. Then they move the Buckeyes/Wisc to primetime. It makes no sense.
But set aside all their scheduling problems, there is still a product problem with MLB as it’s no where near must watch tv for sports fans. Kids are no longer interested. Personally, my team is out of contention by May because we are a small market team who acts as a farm system to the top-spending franchises serving the major markets.
In case these media elites haven’t noticed, the “fly-over” part of America still represents a big part of our economy and just as they did to a big beer brand 6 months ago their lack of interest can do the same to MLB just as they did to the NFL a few years ago when the league permitted kneeling during the anthem. That resulted in 20-30% decline for those years.
Manny Soloway says:

3 years ago

As per usual there are a lot of silly comments here. The MLB has had afternoon playoff games for years, that schedule is not changing and people should stop whining. Fox is airing division series games and putting games on FS1 and TBS is no different than NBA playoff games on ESPN and TNT. (FS1 is actually in slightly more homes than ESPN).

Viewership is fine, college football and NFL over-the-air is touch to compete with and the numbers with no competition look great. ESPN had 5+ million viewers watching ESPN and ESPN2 in primetime during the wild card series, I think they will take that.

That being said MLB should probably cut off a week or two from the regular season. That way they can make the wildcard series best 3 out of 5 and the division series 4 out of 7. Longer series means more drama and less sweeps, would be good for attention and ratings.

Hopefully increasing the amount of playoff games means that the MLB can work in another partner (ideally NBC) to split the wild card series if they increase the games.
- esl says:
  
  3 years ago
  
  Yes, MLB has afternoon playoff games for years. My issue is the constant time changes. There is no consistency. There are games scheduled at 3pm, 4pm, 5pm, 6pm, 7pm, 8pm or 9pm. No other sport has these random times. In the NBA and NHL playoffs, you know during the week games are at 7pm, 7:30, 10pm and 10:30. Pretty much every night. My issue is just getting a set schedule of times. As I noted, it should be 4pm and 4:30 in the afternoon. and 8pm and 8:30 in the evening.
Alessandro says:

3 years ago

I partially agree with esl, especially on lack of continuity in LDS schedule.

I’m not sure it would be good coming back to one-game Wild Card, even though I liked it. I think it would be better best-of-7 LDS, in order to give the opportunity to the stronger team to highlight its superiority, with just 4 days of rest between the end of Regular Season and the beginning of the LDSs.

What I disagree with is this is a bad time for Baseball. There are a lot of things to factor in, for example the big jump in attendance and the rating numbers, still insanely good, for local TVs, despite what’s happening to RSNs.

Even this early TV numbers are not that bad, imho, considering the teams involved. And I think it’s a good thing for Baseball, in general, that there are a lot of teams that can go deep in October. Furthermore, it’s a good thing – I’d say, it’s parity – that some high-payroll teams have been eliminated in the RS or in the early rounds of playoffs.

And, finally, in this scenario, I’d not consider an all-time low World Series TV viewership a disaster. Maybe, some new fan bases are building and some new rivalries are on the verge of becoming relevant.

But, yes, some things need to be fixed. And it wouldn’t be that difficult to do.
Sam miller says:

3 years ago

Does Esl realize that there is not much interest as the numbers say. Since Fox has overpaid, why should they invest more money. Let MLB lower the rights fees and you will see better times and production. MLB only wants the most money. The only time I see the games on anywhere is at my aunts nursing home. Haven’t had 1 friend talk Mlb. Also blaming sweeps in WC round is silly. When you are watching game 2, you don’t know it is going to be a sweep. It’s an elimination game which in theory should drive ratings.
esl says:

3 years ago

Some thoughts on the MLB postseason. First of all, the format is awful. The first-round wild card series was created for ESPN. The network did absolutely nothing to promote the series. All 4 series ended in sweeps and viewership numbers were terrible. Then the division winners wait around for (5) days and get rusty. Except for the Astros, most likely 3 of the division winners will be out in the division round. MLB ruined the playoff format. The one game playoff worked. Now this is the 2nd year in a row where most top seeds are knocked out in the division round (not a coincidence). This has led to some awful matchups. And to make it worse, most games have been 1 sided. Outside of 1 game so far between the Phillies-Braves, there has been absolutely no drama. On to scheduling. The schedule of these games for this round have been atrocious. Games are on anywhere between 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9pm et during the week. Yesterday, I thought the Astros-Twins game was going to start at 3pm. I turned it on and there was no game. I found out since the night before the Rangers swept the Orioles, they moved the game from 3pm to 7pm. Schedule change was made 11pm the night before. There needs to be some continuity on the schedule. It is terrible for the fans attending and the fans trying to watch the games. Here’s what they should do. When both leagues are playing the same day, there should be set times for the AL and NL games. 4pm and 4:30pm and 8pm and 8:30. So for example, for the NL, the Phillies-Braves would start at 4:30pm, the Diamondbacks-Dodgers game would start at 5pm. One game on TBS, one on TNT. In the AL, the Orioles-Rangers game would start at 8pm, and the Twins-Astros would start at 8:30. One game on Fox, and one on FS1. And the leagues alternate (when they are all playing). If one league is playing, both games start at 8pm et. This would bring some continuity. This should go for the wild card round as well. The random times have made these games hard to follow. Also, I believe this would help the ratings (combining both numbers for games). This is done for NCAA tournament games, and in the Olympics. It is time to have some set schedules for these playoff games. I know many years ago in the 90s, the “baseball network” televised 4 games at the same time. You only got 1 game in the region. There was outrage among fans. But that was because there was only 1 game available. This schedule I put together both games would be available. This really needs to happen. Every single day there are different times scheduled in this round. Not a good look for the league. Starting times should be 4pm, 4:30, 8pm, 8:30. Thats it. Regarding the tv schedule, as I previously noted, very disappointed in Fox. I really expected them to invest more in the division series (especially this year with the TV writers strike going on). Paulsen noted that the last division series game on Fox broadcast was 2006. This just shows you how bad the MLB broadcast tv package is. How embarrassing. Can you imagine any other sport that does not have any early round playoff games not on broadcast tv? Even the WNBA has more playoff games on broadcast then MLB. I am curious to see how the LCS schedule shapes up. Will Fox broadcast televise more than 1 game? I highly doubt it, considering the ALCS matchup between Texas and Houston. Looking ahead to the World Series, if these series continue to be 1 sided, this could be all time record low viewership. Especially if we get Arizona and Texas in the World Series. I think the only series that could be close to the 11 million average last year would be Houston against the winner of the Braves-Phillies series. Fox needs that winner in the series. If this no name Arizona Diamondback team gets in, will most likely be record lows. As a longtime baseball fan, October was always the best time of year. Hard to believe that just over 20 years ago, the Yankees-Red Sox ALCS series had over 30 million viewers in game 7. And the Red Sox World Series win in 2004 averaged over 25 million viewers in a 4-game sweep. I dont see even 10 million viewers for any LCS games (even in a 7th game). And depending on the World Series, not sure how many games will be over 10 million. Bad time for baseball.
- Manny Soloway says:
  
  3 years ago
  
  Fox aired two division series games and will air the first two games of the championship series plus game 7