For a variety of reasons, NLCS viewership has not managed to meet last year’s high bar.
Game 4 of the Cubs/Dodgers National League Championship Series scored 5.8 million viewers on FS1 opposite the third presidential debate Wednesday night, down 27% from Mets/Cubs on TBS last year (7.9M) but up 14% from Giants/Cardinals in 2014 (5.1M). Ratings were not immediately available.
Compared to Game 4 of last year’s ALCS on FS1, which aired on a Tuesday afternoon, viewership increased by 124% from 2.6 million for Royals/Blue Jays.
As should be no surprise given the competition, and the lack of competition on the field, the Cubs’ blowout win was the least-watched of the series thus far. It was trounced by the presidential debate, which had 71.5 million viewers across 12 networks — up from the second debate (68.8M) but short of the record-setting first (84.1M).
While the debate had an obvious impact on the numbers, Wednesday’s decline was not an outlier. Game 3 had a 3.9 final rating and 6.5 million viewers Tuesday night, down a steeper 33% in ratings and 30% in viewership from Mets/Cubs last year (5.8, 9.2M) but up 105% and 134%, respectively, from Cardinals/Giants in the afternoon two years ago (1.9, 2.8M). Compared to Royals/Blue Jays on FS1 last year, ratings increased 105% from 1.9 and viewership 110% from 3.1 million.
Despite the drop, it was still the second-most watched program in the history of Fox Sports 1 — trailing only Game 2 (7.3M). The Cubs now account for six of the network’s seven largest audiences.
Three of the first four NLCS games have posted double-digit declines in ratings and/or viewership from last year on TBS. The lone exception was Game 2, which posted increases of 8% and 11%, respectively. One factor in the decline is the move from TBS to FS1, which is in about 10 million fewer homes than TBS was in last year. Another is the Dodgers’ relatively limited drawing power compared to the Mets, whose lone playoff game this year remains the most watched — their Wild Card loss to the Giants had 7.4 million.
With all of that said, the downward trend is almost certainly over as last year’s highly rated NLCS ended in four games. The previous series to go five (Giants/Cardinals in 2014) or six (Cardinals/Dodgers in 2013) did not do particularly well.
(Numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 10/20, Programming Insider 10/19, The Wrap 10/20)
