For the second time in four days, the Royals and Blue Jays delivered a record-low LCS audience.
Game 4 of the Royals/Blue Jays American League Championship Series drew 2.6 million viewers on Fox Sports 1 Tuesday afternoon, down 49% from Cardinals/Giants last year (5.1M) and down 68% from Red Sox/Tigers on FOX in 2013 (8.1M), both of which aired on Wednesday nights. The rating was not immediately available.
Compared to Game 4 of Royals/Orioles on TBS last year, which aired on a Wednesday afternoon, viewership declined 35% from 4.0 million.
The Royals’ blowout win ranks as the least-watched LCS telecast ever in the U.S., falling below the previous mark of 2.7 million for Game 2 of the series on Saturday. The Royals/Blue Jays series has already earned three of the five smallest LCS audiences. FS1, which has aired just seven total LCS games, accounts for four of the bottom five.
Tuesday’s game trailed Cubs/Mets Game 3 later in the night by a whopping 72% (9.2M), the largest gap between LCS games on the same day since at least 2001 (and likely ever). Even on October 20, 2004, when Red Sox/Yankees Game 7 (31.4M) more-than-tripled Astros/Cardinals Game 6 (10.3M), the gap was narrower (67%).
The primary reason for the disparity is that the NLCS features the nation’s #1 and #3 markets, while the ALCS has been hamstrung by #33 Kansas City and the presence of a Canadian team. Interest in the Blue Jays has been high in Canada, leading to record audiences on SportsNet, but those numbers do not count toward U.S. television ratings.
The NLCS has also benefited from airing exclusively in primetime, while two of the four ALCS games have aired in the afternoon. In addition, ALCS broadcaster FS1 is in ten million fewer homes than NLCS carrier TBS — 84.3 million for the former and 95.4 million for the latter, as of July.
(Tue. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily)
