A much-hyped broadcast team has done nothing to help Sunday Night Baseball ratings. In other news, Stanley Cup playoff ratings dropped for a second straight night, and the UFC on FOX scored a rare increase over the previous year.
Sunday Night Baseball Ratings Down Again
All three Sunday Night Baseball games have declined from last year, with the caveat that the season debut did not take place on Opening Night as in previous years.
In other weekend action, FS1 scored a 0.28 and 423,000 (+56%) for Rangers-Astros and a 0.30 and 513,000 (+27%) for Angels-Royals last Saturday.
Shifting to midweek, the Indians-Twins Puerto Rico series pulled 455,000 viewers on FS1 Tuesday and 766,000 on ESPN Wednesday. There were no comparable games last year. Monday’s Cubs-Cardinals game on ESPN was rained out.
Stanley Cup Playoff Ratings Down Thursday
Over on USA Network, Capitals-Blue Jackets had a 0.33 and 539,000 (-15%). The game had a postseason-high 6.09 rating on Fox Sports Ohio in Columbus, which is not factored into the national tally. FS Ohio has averaged a 5.64 for series thus far, up 13% from the first four games last year and well above the market’s average for national coverage on NBCSN (1.89).
UFC on FOX Scores Rare Year-over-Year Increase
The telecast was the first edition of UFC on FOX to improve over the previous year since December 2016. Even so, the 1.2 rating is tied as the second-worst ever for a mixed martial arts event on primetime network television.
Head-to-head, UFC on FOX beat the competing Maple Leafs-Bruins Stanley Cup playoff game on NBC in ratings (1.2 to 1.1), viewership (2.0M to 1.8M) and adults 18-49 (0.6 to 0.5). It was no match for the competing Heat-Sixers NBA playoff game on ESPN (2.5, 4.0M, 1.6 A18-49).
[Numbers from ShowBuzz Daily 4.17, 4.18, 4.19, 4.20; Programming Insider 4.17; Fox Sports Ohio 4.20]
