With the New York Mets’ 8-3 win over the Chicago Cubs in Game 4 of the NLCS on Wednesday night, TBS’s coverage of the MLB Postseason has concluded. And now that their coverage is over, it’s official – Turner turned in their most-watched Postseason ever.
The four games of the NLCS drew 7.9 million, 6.6 million, 9.2 million, and 7.9 million viewers, good for an average of 7.9 million viewers. That average is up 55% from the Royals-Orioles ALCS in 2014 on TBS, and 58% from the Cardinals-Dodgers NLCS in 2013 on TBS.
As a whole Turner’s Postseason coverage averaged 6.3 million viewers over 14 games, up 48% from last year and a new record for Turner’s coverage of the MLB Postseason (11 games).
For Fox, the LCS has been a different story for various reasons. Through four games, the Blue Jays-Royals ALCS is averaging just 3.7 million viewers, down 16% from the first four games of 2014’s Giants-Cardinals NLCS. It’s not fair to compare this series to the 2013 Red Sox-Tigers ALCS, since that series took place exclusively on Fox’s broadcast network and zero games were on FS1. This year, only Game 1 has aired on Fox, while the remainder of the series (including Game 6 and a potential Game 7) will air on FS1.
Full Canadian ratings for the ALCS on Rogers SportsNet weren’t immediately available, but Games 1 through 3 averaged 3.8 million viewers.
Fox also has other factors going against it in this ALCS, specifically the inclusion of a Canadian market (which has resulted in numerous record viewership totals for Rogers SportsNet in Canada throughout the ALDS and ALCS) and one of baseball’s smallest markets in Kansas City. In addition to the placement on cable and the unappealing markets in the series, three of the five games to air have been in the afternoon as opposed to primetime.
The only one of those problems that will still exist during Fox’s coverage of the World Series is the AL market. Whichever NL team won the pennant would have satisfied Fox, and while they may have preferred the Cubs, their nationwide fanbase, and their incredible narrative, “settling” for the Mets and the New York market is a decent consolation prize. None of the potential seven World Series games will be on cable, with all of the games airing in primetime on Fox. Zero World Series games will be going head to head with Monday Night Football, and the college football schedule going up against Game 4 on Halloween isn’t a strong one. However, the Packers-Broncos Sunday Night Football matchup going up against a potential Game 5 on November 1st is a guaranteed draw.
Overall, the Postseason has been strong for MLB and its partners – and hopefully, the “baseball is dead” narrative will disappear for at least one more year.
