MLB ended its regular season and began its postseason on a down note.
Tuesday’s Brewers-Nationals National League Wild Card game averaged a 2.9 rating and 4.73 million viewers on TBS, down 31% in ratings and 32% in viewership from Rockies-Cubs on ESPN last year (4.2, 6.99M), but up 12% and 8% respectively from Rockies-Diamondbacks on TBS in 2017 (2.6, 4.40M).
Compared to last year’s A’s-Yankees AL Wild Card on TBS, ratings fell 24% (from 3.8) and viewership 23% (from 6.16M).
The Nationals’ win ranks as the second-most watched NL Wild Card game on TBS (five telecasts), but just sixth out of ten with AL games included. Across all networks, it ranks 11th out of the 15 all-time Wild Card games (dating back to 2012).
Milwaukee led all markets Tuesday night with a 19.6 rating. Washington D.C. was a distant second at an 8.8. Minneapolis-St. Paul (5.7), Los Angeles (5.3) and St. Louis (5.2) rounded out the top five.
Shifting to the end of the regular season, the MLB on FOX finale (mostly Cubs-Cardinals) averaged a 1.3 and 1.97 million last Saturday night — down a tick in ratings and 3% in viewership from last year (mostly Cardinals-Cubs: 1.4, 2.04M), but up a tick and 11% respectively from 2017 (mostly Astros-Red Sox: 1.2, 1.79M). Those windows aired at 1 PM ET.
The previous night, the same matchup averaged a 0.28 and 417,000 (-54%) on ESPN2. Last year’s comparable window was Yankees-Red Sox and aired on the flagship ESPN network (913K).
The final telecast of the regular season, Indians-Nationals on TBS Sunday, had just 114,000 — down 55% from Yankees-Red Sox last year (255K) and down 1% from Dodgers-Rockies in 2017 (115K). Figures were unavailable for Saturday’s Indians-Nationals game on FS1.
[Nielsen estimates from Programming Insider 10.2 a, b; ShowBuzz Daily 10.2]
