FS1 on Thursday night drew a 3.8 overnight rating for Game 5 of the Dodgers-Nationals NLDS, down 34% from a 5.8 rating for the comparable Mets-Dodgers Game 5 on TBS last year. That 5.8 last year was TBS' second-highest overnight ever for an NLDS game. Excluded from last night's number is the Orlando-Daytona market, which is still not reporting in the wake of Hurricane Matthew. Compared to last year's Royals-Astros ALDS Game 5 on FS1, which aired on a Wednesday, Dodgers-Nationals is down slightly (less than 1%). (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
DIVISION SEES SUBTRACTION: The drop for Thursday night’s game secures lower viewership for the MLB Postseason to date compared to the same period last year. Heading into Dodgers-Nationals Game 5, the ’16 playoffs were averaging 3.41 million viewers across FS1, TBS and MLB Network, down 5% compared to the same period last season. That excludes the comparable Mets-Dodgers NLDS Game 5 in ’15. Both years had to deal with the Toronto market, but ’15 saw the two ALDS series go to five games. The two series were sweeps this year (both on TBS). There were also a few delays this year due to Hurricane Matthew and the second presidential debate. FS1 did see a bright spot during the series-clinching Cubs-Giants NLDS Game 4 on Tuesday night. That game drew 6.37 million viewers, marking FS1’s best audience to date for any telecast. The previous record was 5.94 million viewers for Royals-Astros ALDS Game 5 last year. The Cubs-Giants game, along with Dodgers-Nats Game 4, helped FS1 on Tuesday to the net’s best total-day audience on record. Several of the net’s studio shows, including “Undisputed,” “The Herd” and “Garbage Time With Katie Nolan,” had their most-watched episodes to date. Meanwhile, MLB Network’s two LDS games this season averaged 2.84 million viewers, which is the net’s best postseason mark to date (five years of MLB Postseason games). MLB Net’s strong postseason was fueled by Cubs-Giants Game 2 on Saturday night, which drew a network-record audience of 4.61 million viewers. The top postseason game to date remains the Giants-Mets NL Wild Card on Oct. 5, which drew 7.42 million viewers and marked ESPN's second-best MLB audience in 13 years, behind only last year's 7.6 million viewers for Astros-Yankees (Karp).
NIGHT RIDERS: In N.Y., Ken Davidoff notes at least the first five Dodgers-Cubs NLCS games will take place in primetime, while three of the first six Blue Jays-Indians ALCS contests "will begin shortly after" 4:00pm. Blue Jays 3B Josh Donaldson jokingly said, "Maybe they just want to take advantage of the Cubs' new lights." Blue Jays SS Troy Tulowitzki added, "As far as ratings and who wants to watch what game, we couldn't really care less about that" (N.Y. POST, 10/14). SI.com's Richard Deitsch cited a source as saying MLB execs "take the wishes of the TV networks into consideration, but it's not the only factor" when determining game times. The source: "Since they don't want to have games overlap, they have to take travel and time zones into consideration too. They have multiple networks to please, so no network ever gets everything they want" (SI.com, 10/13).
SILENCE IS GOLDEN: In N.Y., Phil Mushnick writes Fox' Harold Reynolds "should have been told what baseball fans know: Come up for air! You talk too much; you smother the games!" However, Reynolds is "just one of many who would sound twice as good if he spoke half as much" (N.Y. POST, 10/14).
