Major League Baseball’s revised postseason format can’t be blamed for taking viewers away from the broadcast networks. On Monday night, October 8, while The Voice posted a 4.8 rating with Adults 18-49, 2 Broke Girls managed a 3.4, and ESPN’s Monday Night Football of course hit a 5.7 rating in prime time, the main baseball playoff game of the day (New York Yankees at Baltimore Orioles at 8:37 on TBS) averaged a paltry 1.4 rating. Granted, that’s better than The Mob Doctor did but that’s a dubious distinction.
Sunday’s prime time game, also Yankees at Orioles, at 8:31 on TBS scored a similar 1.3 rating versus Sunday Night Football‘s 7.2 rating.
OK, you say — baseball is getting hammered by the #1, sport football. But look at Friday, October 5, when MLB unveiled its new opening round: two wildcard teams from each league playing a sudden death elimination game — like two Game 7’s on one day. The prime time game at 8:49 (Baltimore at Texas) averaged a 1.8 rating, while the 5:00 pm contest (St Louis at Atlanta) eked out a 1.2 rating.
Later today, we will see the results from Tuesday night, when there was no NFL and both games featured teams on the brink of elimination. Chances are the ratings for the prime time game will maybe get a 1.6 or 1.8 rating — somewhere around the rating for last night’s Mindy Project. If you are a fan of the great sport, that has to make you pretty sad.
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WEDNESDAY Ratings
Preliminary ratings are delayed by Nielsen until at least 9:30 am PT (90 minutes past due). The ratings service is performing extra “quality checks,” so be prepared for unusually high quality ratings later this morning!
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