After a surprising double-digit decline for Game 1, the Yankees’ first ALDS in five years bounced back over the weekend.
Sunday’s Indians-Yankees ALDS Game 3 had 5.3 million viewers on FS1, up 149% from Rangers-Blue Jays on TBS opposite a presidential debate last year (2.1M) and up 123% from Blue Jays-Rangers on FS1 in 2015 (2.4M). Ratings were not immediately available.
The Yankees’ season-saving win, which peaked with 7.0 million viewers from 10:45 PM ET through the conclusion, was the most-watched Division Series game on an NFL Sunday since 2009 — when Yankees-Twins scored 6.7 million on TBS. Including the streaming audience on Fox Sports GO (86K) and the Spanish-language audience on Fox Deportes, the game had 5.5 million.
Game 3 had a 29.2 in Cleveland and a 12.1 in New York. As one would expect, given that neither the Indians nor Yankees had ever played a playoff game on FS1 prior to this season, those were network records in both markets.
Earlier Sunday, the penultimate game of the Astros-Red Sox series had 2.3 million viewers (2.5 million with streaming and Spanish-language viewership included). In the comparable slot last year, Nationals-Dodgers Game 2 had 1.2 million, but that game had been postponed a day due to rain.
Game 2 of the series had 1.63 million on FS1 Friday afternoon, up 1% from Blue Jays-Rangers last year (1.61M) and up 4% from Rangers-Blue Jays on MLB Network in 2015 (1.56M).
Shifting to the National League, Cubs-Nationals Game 1 scored 3.5 million viewers on TBS Friday night — up 58% from Dodgers-Nationals on FS1 last year (2.2M) but down 35% from Cubs-Cardinals on TBS in ’15 (5.4M). The game overlapped for nearly three hours with the late-running Yankees-Indians Game 2, which as previously reported had 3.2 million on MLB Network.
Diamondbacks-Dodgers Game 1 had 2.9 million in Friday’s nightcap, down 48% from Giants-Cubs on FS1 last year (5.7M) and down 38% from Mets-Dodgers on TBS in ’15 (4.7M).
[Numbers from Fox Sports, ShowBuzz Daily 10.9, Sports Business Daily 10.9]
