TBS earned a 3.7 overnight rating for Thursday night's Red Sox-Indians ALDS Game 1. That number is up 19% from the '14 Royals-Angels ALDS Game 1 on the net. Thursday's broadcast peaked with a 4.2 from 9:45-10:00pm ET. In Cleveland, the game drew a 25.4, making it the top local market. It is also the best overnight for an MLB game in the city since the '07 Red Sox-Indians ALCS Game 7. The game earned a 16.0 in Boston, the best overnight for an MLB game since the '13 Red Sox-Cardinals World Series Game 7. Meanwhile, in the early game, Blue Jays-Rangers ALDS Game 1 earned a 1.5 overnight rating, up 15% from the same matchup a year ago on Fox. Compared to last year's Cubs-Cardinals NLDS Game 1 on TBS, this year's Blue Jays-Rangers is down from a 3.8. Thursday's game peaked with a 1.8 from 5:30-5:45pm ET. Dallas-Ft. Worth led all markets with a 5.0 overnight. The national overnight numbers for both games do not include Florida markets due to Hurricane Matthew (Joe Perez, Assistant Editor).
HIGH MARKS: Wednesday's Giants-Mets NL Wild Card game was the second-most watched MLB game on ESPN in 13 years. The game delivered 7,420,000 average viewers, peaking with nearly 9.2 million average viewers from 11:00-11:15pm ET. ESPN won the night across broadcast and cable in all key male demos (ESPN).
LET'S GET DIGITAL: MLB during the AL and NL Wild Card games this week generated a total of 80.5 million live minutes of consumption on its digital platforms, according to its internal Live Digital Data Ratings (LDDR). The figure is a record for the Wild Card games, and up 123% from a comparable figure of 35.9 million minutes last year. The LDDR metric, introduced last year includes consumption on MLB digital products, including its flagship MLB.com At Bat mobile application, MLB. TV, and Gameday pitch tracking during live game windows (Eric Fisher, Staff Writer).
HAIR-RAISING ISSUE: SI's Richard Deitsch noted Fox' Joe Buck "feared for his broadcasting career five years ago when he suffered a paralyzed left vocal cord," and while Buck told people it was from a virus, the truth is it was the result of a botched hair-plug surgery. Buck reveals the truth for the first time in his upcoming memoir, "Lucky Bastard: My Life, My Dad, And The Things I'm Not Allowed To Say On TV." Deitsch noted Buck underwent his "eighth hair replacement procedure" when something "went wrong during the six-hour-plus procedure." When he woke up from the anesthetic, Buck "could not speak." He believes his vocal cord was "paralyzed because of a cuff the surgery center used to protect him during the procedure." Given his "embarrassment over what had happened, Buck lied to his bosses." Few people "knew the truth beyond Buck’s immediate family and some close friends, including his NFL broadcast partner, Troy Aikman." Buck: "I was lying ... it was really for self-preservation and ego for me. As I look back, I gave partial truths. Where I lied was when I said the reason why." He added, "Any surgery done to improve one’s looks is not really something someone wants to talk about. So it’s very cathartic to get this out" (SI.com, 10/6).
PUSHING FORWARD: In S.F., Bruce Jenkins notes MLB Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow plans to call Friday's NLDS Game 1 from Wrigley Field despite "dealing with a condition known as inclusion-body myositis, a somewhat mysterious disease that causes atrophy in specific muscle groups." He is "most affected in his legs," and he’s "constantly wary of falling down." Virtually all MLB ballparks have "elevators and ramps to aid the disabled, but Wrigley is a glaring exception." The first two games of the NLDS should be "particularly difficult, because the Giants will be broadcasting only on radio, with all four announcers (including Jon Miller and Dave Flemming) involved." It is a postseason setup they have "cherished, but it will require the occasional shuffling of bodies in tight quarters" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 10/7).
