MLB TV ratings continue rise in a postseason stacked with high-profile teams.
Wednesday’s Dodgers-Cubs NLCS Game 4 had a 4.0 rating and 6.8 million viewers on TBS, up 18% in ratings and 16% from the same matchup on FS1 last year, which aired opposite a presidential debate (3.4, 5.8M), but down 20% and 14% respectively from Mets-Cubs on TBS in 2015 (5.0, 7.9M).
The Cubs’ season-saving win was the most-watched game of the League Championship Series and the third-most watched of the postseason, trailing only a pair of Division Series Game 5s — Cubs-Nationals (7.0M) and Yankees-Indians (7.3M).
After attracting lower-than-usual audiences in the Division Series, the Cubs have now played in four of the six most-watched games this postseason.
Earlier in the day, Astros-Yankees Game 5 delivered a 3.3 and 5.3 million on Fox Sports 1 — up 74% in ratings and 84% in viewership from Indians-Blue Jays on TBS last year (1.9, 2.9M). It was the most-watched ALCS Game 5 since Red Sox-Tigers on the FOX broadcast network in 2013 (8.6M).
The Yankees’ go-ahead win, which peaked with 6.4 million viewers from 8:15-8:30 PM ET, also delivered the largest weekday afternoon LCS audience since Red Sox-Tigers Game 3 in ’13 (5.6M).
Including the Spanish-language audience on Fox Deportes (218K) and streaming viewership on Fox Sports GO (118K), Game 5 delivered 5.6 million viewers.
Locally, Game 5 had a series-high 14.6 rating in New York City and a series-low 10.6 in Houston. Game 4 of the NLCS had a series-high 20.0 rating in Chicago, while Los Angeles turned in a 14.3 — trailing Game 3 (14.4) as the market’s highest Dodgers rating since at least 1998.
[Numbers from Turner Sports PR 10.19, Fox Sports PR/Twitter 10.19a, 10.19b, Programming Insider 10.19]
