Playing in their first winner-take-all game since 2005, the biggest TV draw in baseball attracted record numbers on TBS Thursday night.
Thursday’s deciding Game 5 between the Tigers and Yankees earned a 6.2 U.S. rating and 9.720 million viewers on TBS, up 51% in ratings and 52% in viewership from the comparable game on the seventh day of last year’s postseason (TEX/TB G5: 4.1, 6.410M). There was no comparable game in 2009.
Last year’s game aired on a Tuesday night. The was no game on the comparable Thursday night last year.
The Tigers’ series-clinching win ranks as the fifth-most viewed Major League Baseball game ever on cable (regular season or postseason), behind only Rangers/Yankees Game 4 last year (9.846M), Cubs/Cardinals during the 1998 home run chase (10.622M, ESPN), Yankees/Rangers Game 6 last year (11.863M), and Red Sox/Rays Game 7 in 2008 (13.357M).
In addition, the game ranks as the most-viewed Division Series telecast ever on cable, and the most-viewed such telecast overall since Yankees/Angels Game 5 in 2005 (13.699M, FOX).
Excluding the NFL, Game 5 ranks as the most-viewed sporting event on a single cable network since the Women’s World Cup final in July (JPN/USA: 13.458M, ESPN).
In Detroit, the Tigers’ win scored an 27.6 rating (up 22% from Game 4). In New York, the game earned an 18.3 (up 20% from Game 4).
(This year’s numbers from Turner Sports)
