The two MLB League Championship Series matchups started this week, and viewership is not off to a good start.
Game 1 of the Astros-Rays series on TBS drew just 2.069 million viewers, going head to head with both Game 6 of the NBA Finals and Sunday Night Football. Game 2, which aired on Monday afternoon, drew 1.878 million viewers on TBS. Those are the two least-watched LCS games ever, regardless of league or network.
Over in the senior circuit, things aren’t much better for the NLCS. Going head to head with Monday Night Football, Game 1 of Braves-Dodgers on Fox drew 4.202 million viewers, making it the most-watched game of this year’s MLB season. However, it is still the second-least watched LCS game to air on Fox, ahead of just Game 3 of Giants-Cardinals in 2012 (3.90 million).
For context, Fox had the ALCS last year, and TBS had the NLCS. Game 1 of the ALCS on Fox drew 6.11 million viewers (on a Saturday night), and Game 1 of the NLCS on TBS drew 4.646 million viewers. Game 2 of the ALCS on FS1 drew 5.587 million viewers, and Game 2 of the NLCS on TBS drew 3.039 million viewers.
Here’s your viewership chart through three games.
Polishing off our Division Series coverage, Game 5 of Yankees-Rays on Friday night drew 3.723 million viewers for TBS, a playoff high for MLB. That helped increase the Division Series overall viewership to 1.799 million viewers, compared to 1.609 million viewers for the newly expanded Wild Card round. Last year’s Division Series averaged 2.70 million viewers through 14 games.
And here’s your final Division Series viewership chart.
Game 2 of the NLCS will air on FS1 Tuesday, while Game 3 of the ALCS airs on TBS.
[Data via ShowBuzz Daily]
