With the games competing with each other for an hour — to say nothing of Thursday Night Football — MLB League Championship Series viewership took a noticeable hit.
Thursday’s Dodgers-Mets National League Championship Series Game 4 averaged a 1.9 rating and 3.96 million viewers on FS1, marking the least-watched NLCS Game 4 since Diamondbacks-Rockies on TBS in 2007, a game that started after 10 PM ET (3.80M).
The Dodgers’ rout declined 30% in ratings and 27% in viewership from Phillies-Diamondbacks on TBS and truTV last year (2.7, 5.45M) and 34 and 31% respectively from Padres-Phillies on FOX in 2022 (2.9, 5.74M), but neither of those games faced NFL competition. Compared to last year’s ALCS Game 4 in the same Thursday night window last year, ratings were flat and viewership actually increased 8% from 3.66 million.
Game 4 was easily the least-watched of a series that opened with 8.6 million on FOX last Sunday night. The previous night’s Game 3 was far stronger at 5.9 million and even the Monday afternoon Game 2 drew 5.5 million, albeit across both FOX and FS1.
It was no match for Broncos-Saints on Thursday Night Football (9.8M) and also trailed the competing Game 3 of the Yankees-Guardians ALCS Game 3 on TBS and truTV, which it overlapped with for more than an hour (4.3M).
The Guardians’ extra-inning comeback win, which peaked with 5.7 million in the 8:30 PM ET quarter-hour, declined 7% from Astros-Rangers on a Wednesday night last year (4.64M) and 8% from the Yankees’ previous LCS Game 3 in 2022, a Saturday afternoon matchup with Houston (4.66M). Versus last year’s Phillies-Diamondbacks NLCS Game 3, which aired in the same Thursday evening window, viewership increased 4% from 4.14 million.
Game 3 was not the least-watched game of the series, as Monday’s series-opener averaged 3.94 million opposite Monday Night Football.
(Nielsen estimates via Programming Insider 10.18)
