The 2016 Cubs are really the holy grail of sports story. They’re a dominant team with big-name stars and exciting role players, plus an eccentric manager a celebrity GM and, oh yeah, a little curse or something like that.
According to Crain’s Chicago Business, Thursday’s Cubs-Dodgers NLCS Game 5 drew an average local TV rating of 24.1, meaning more than a million homes tuned in. But here’s the truly remarkable part: That figure was almost twice the rating of Bears-Packers, which aired Thursday night on CBS and NFL Network and drew a 12.8.
The Cubs destroying the Bears in local viewership is shocking for a few reasons:
1. The NFL rules America. We all know football is the country’s most popular sport, and ratings consistently bear that out.
2. We’ve already seen during these MLB playoffs how helpless baseball is when matched against football. When games airing at similar times, the Washington football team crushed the Nationals’ Game 2 locally on Oct. 9, and Cowboys-Bengals destroyed Rangers-Blue Jays the same day.
3. Thursday wasn’t just any Bears game, it was Bears-Packers, arguably the biggest rivalry in the NFL. Chicago lives for Bears-Packers. It’s practically a holiday.
And yet, despite all of that, the Cubs mauled the Bears in the ratings game. In fact, it was the highest rated game of the NLCS so far, according to Crain’s.
The Cubs were helped by the fact that the Bears are godawful, with ratings that reflect as much. Via Crain’s:
But the Bears’ TV rating is exceptionally low. Its games so far this year have posted ratings in the 19 to 21 range. That’s a more drastic dip than NFL TV ratings overall, which were down 11 percent over the first six weeks of the season compared to the same point last year.
As Chicago turns against the last-place Bears, the city is embracing the Cubs, who are almost single-handedly carrying a ratings boom for the MLB postseason. Now they’re now a game away from a network-friendly matchup with the Indians in the World Series that would certainly draw some gaudy viewership figures.
Of course, in terms of national interest there’s no competition between the Cubs and the NFL.
Bears/Packers CBS + NFLN: 14.202M
Cubs Dodgers FS1: 7.180M (record overnight does not translate to record FS1 viewership. close. 2nd-best).— Sports TV Ratings (@SportsTVRatings) October 21, 2016
It turned out Chicago was smart to watch the Cubs instead of the Bears on Thursday, as the Cubs won 8-4 to take a 3-2 lead in their series, while the Bears lost 26-10 to drop to 1-6 on the season.
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