Wednesday’s MLB Division Series action across three networks resulted in two games increasing, two games increasing, and a whole lot of mixed news for the league.
The two decreases came for the round’s most-watched and least-watched series. Game 3 of Rays-Yankees drew 2.391 million viewers on TBS, down from 2.614 million for Game 2. Notably, this game went head to head with the vice presidential debate, which drew something in the neighborhood of 52 million viewers across a variety of networks. The second decrease game for Game 2 of the Braves-Marlins series, which aired on MLB Network and drew 870,000 viewers, down from 1.3 million for Game 1 on FS1.
The two increases came for the mid-afternoon and late night series. Game 3 of A’s-Astros on TBS drew 1.491 million viewers, up from 1.368 million in Game 2, and Game 2 of Dodgers-Padres drew 1.635 million viewers on FS1, up from 1.486 million for Game 1.
Overall, the Division Series round is averaging 1.691 million viewers through ten games, uand p from 1.609 million viewers in the Wild Card round. Another four games are airing on Thursday, a maximum of three will air on Friday (assuming the Braves don’t blow this seven-run lead in the seventh inning), with one possible game taking place on Saturday. Also of note: Game 3 of the Dodgers-Padres series will not air on FS1, but instead on MLB Network, which likely won’t be a good thing for the average viewership across the series and the round as a whole.
Here’s the full chart of viewership so far.
MLB has to be sweating the Rays-Yankees series. It’s been the only strong draw so far in the round, and much of that is due to the presence of the Yankees. New York getting bumped by Tampa Bay, who currently have a 2-1 lead, would deprive the league of its most popular team in the ALCS (and possibly the World Series). With all due respect to the Rays organization and their fans, MLB is absolutely hoping the series doesn’t end on Thursday night and that the Yankees win two in a row to move on. If they can’t, we could be looking at some historic lows for the ALCS.
[Data via ShowBuzz Daily]
