The Sunday Night Baseball ratings slump continues, with all ten games this season down from last year.
Coverage aired opposite the NBA Finals in each year.
All ten Sunday Night Baseball windows this season have declined from last year, with Red Sox-Astros the seventh to drop double-digits in both ratings and viewership. Sunday’s game was just the second of the season to post an increase over 2016.
Seven of the ten Sunday night windows have had less than a 1.0 rating, compared to three at the same point last season.
So far this season, Sunday Night Baseball has featured the Cubs or Yankees a combined three times, with one of those three airing on ESPN2 due to an NBA conference final Game 7. At the same point last year, those teams played in six of the network’s ten windows — including one head-to-head matchup.
In other action, regional MLB action featuring Cubs-Mets had a 1.3 and 2.1 million on FOX Saturday night — flat in ratings and down 2% in viewership from last year (ft. Red Sox-Orioles: 1.3, 2.1M) and down 19% and 17% respectively from 2016 (1.6, 2.5M).
Earlier in the day, FS1 scored a 0.31 and 478,000 (-7%) on FS1.
Shifting to weeknight action, ESPN drew 442,000 for Diamondbacks-Giants Monday night (+6%) and FS1 383,000 for Marlins-Cardinals on Tuesday.
2018 Sunday Night Baseball Ratings, Viewership
Through June 3
| Date | Game | Rtg. | +/- | Vwrs. | +/- | 2017 Game |
| 4/1 | SF-LAD | 1.2 | -43% | 1.97M | -46% | CHC-STL* |
| 4/8 | NYM-WSH | 1.0 | -9% | 1.58M | -9% | MIA-NYM |
| 4/15 | TEX-HOU | 0.9 | -18% | 1.37M | -22% | STL-NYY |
| 4/22 | WSH-LAD | 0.8 | -11% | 1.28M | -7% | WSH-NYM |
| 4/29 | NYY-LAA | 1.4 | -13% | 2.19M | -11% | CHC-BOS |
| 5/6 | CHC-STL** | 0.9 | -40% | 1.42M | -41% | NYY-CHC |
| 5/13 | WSH-ARIZ | 0.8 | -35% | 1.20M | -38% | HOU-NYY |
| 5/20 | CLE-HOU | 0.7 | -13% | 1.14M | -6% | TEX-DET |
| 5/27 | SF-CHC^ | 0.6 | -24% | 1.02M | -17% | NYM-PIT |
| 6/3 | BOS-HOU | 0.9 | -18% | 1.44M | -19% | STL-CHC |
*: Opening Night game; ** Delayed due to rain; ^: Aired on ESPN2
