TBS’ averaged 4.294 million viewers for its coverage of AL games during the '14 MLB postseason (11 telecasts), marking the net's most-viewed postseason coverage since '10 and a 3% increase from 4.16 million viewers last year (24 games). TBS also won the night across cable TV six times during the postseason and delivered growth across all key demos. This year marked the first time in postseason history all three AL series ended in sweeps. In addition, approximately only half of TBS’ playoff games aired in primetime compared, with two-thirds of the net’s telecasts airing in primetime last year. The Royals-Orioles ALCS, which featured the two smallest market sizes in ALCS history, averaged 5.071 million viewers for four game telecasts, up 2% over the net’s six-game Cardinals-Dodgers NLCS series in '13, which averaged 4.961 million viewers. Seven of the eight playoff games in the K.C. market exceeding a 30.0 local rating on TBS -- all of them ranking as the highest on record for an MLB game in the market. Meanwhile, FS1's coverage of Giants-Cardinals NLCS Game 4 on Wednesday set a viewership record for the net with 5.092 million viewers. That figure will likely be topped by last night's clinching Game 5, which already set an overnight rating record for FS1, despite airing up against the Jets-Patriots "TNF" game on CBS. Game 4 topped the previous mark of 4.367 million viewers for Game 2 of the same series. It was the fourth time since FS1’s MLB postseason coverage began on Oct. 3 that the net has broken a viewership record. The net's top four shows and six of its top 10 are '14 MLB postseason games (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
TOO GOOD FOR TOO LONG? In St. Louis, Dan Caesar writes postseason success "has become almost second nature in recent years" for the Cardinals, and the "novelty is wearing off in terms of watching them on television in October." The first four games of the Giants-Cardinals NLCS averaged a 23.2 local rating in St. Louis, "the worst figure by far for any of the nine NLCS the Cards have been in" dating back to '00. This year also "includes the worst-rated game of all 36 contests in that group of the first four Cards NLCS games going back 14 years." Game 3 drew a 19.3 local rating, well beneath the previous low figure (22.8 rating for Game 2 of the '11 NLCS against the Brewers on TBS). The dip in ratings this year "goes beyond where the games are being televised," and it "seems natural that interest wanes with familiarity." But even "in a rut, postseason baseball still by far outdraws everything else on St. Louis television" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 10/17).
