TBS' broadcast of Yankees-A's peaked at a 5.9 rating from 9:15-9:30pm last nightGETTY IMAGES
TBS last night got a taste of what will likely be strong ALDS numbers, as the Yankees' 7-2 win over the A's delivered the net's best AL Wild Card overnight yet. TBS drew a 5.0 rating for the game from 8:00-11:30pm ET, up 56% from a 3.2 for the net's D-backs-Rockies NL Wild Card last year, which remains the least-watched Wild Card game on any network. Two years ago, TBS drew a 3.3 overnight for the Blue Jays' extra-innings walkoff over the Orioles, but that game had competition from a VP debate. ESPN had the AL Wild Card last year, drawing a 5.2 overnight for Yankees-Twins, which went up against heavy news coverage around the Las Vegas shooting. TBS' Yankees-A's peaked at a 5.9 rating from 9:15-9:30pm last night. The net also will get a win among all cable networks in primetime (Austin Karp, THE DAILY).
SWIMMING UPSTREAM: AWFUL ANNOUNCING's Andrew Bucholtz noted a "whole lot of people ran into issues" with TBS’ streaming app last night during Yankees-A's. As the third inning played out, there was still a “Sorry, we are trouble loading content right now” screen. It was "fixed by the fourth inning" (AWFULANNOUCNING.com, 10/3).
A-ROD ON AIR: In Chicago, Phil Rosenthal writes ESPN's Alex Rodriguez "bent the rules like origami during his own playing career," but during Rockies-Cubs on Tuesday, Rodriguez said “the rules are the rules” after Cubs 2B Javier Baez potentially prevented a double play as Rockies 3B Nolan Arenado tagged him out. Rodriguez "lecturing Baez, the umpires or anyone else on rules" is "hilarious." He is "not the one who should be lecturing anyone." He "remains a work in progress as an analyst," and when he "seems to be saying something profound, it’s sometimes less so on closer examination." Rodriguez and the rest of ESPN's "Sunday Night Baseball" booth on Tuesday "were slow to acknowledge defensive changes" and made "little of pitches called strikes despite graphics showing them outside the zone." Sometimes, they "missed stuff or gave it short shrift simply because they were otherwise engaged" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 10/4). In N.Y., Andrew Marchand writes Rodriguez during Rockies-Cubs "tried to do too much -- even tweeting constantly throughout the game." He "never stopped talking" and "dominated the broadcast to the point you had to wonder at times if his co-analyst, Jessica Mendoza, was still in the booth" (N.Y. POST, 10/4).
PAST YOUR BEDTIME? Rockies-Cubs lasted nearly five hours and finished after 1:00am ET, and in Cincinnati, Paul Daugherty noted it took "exactly one postseason game to revive MLB’s conundrum" of late starts and lengthy game times. If a "great game happens at night and everyone east of the Mississippi goes to bed before it’s over, is it really a great game?" Daugherty: "Unless it’s a team in which I have a rooting or professional interest, I simply ain’t stickin’ ‘round past midnight." Neither are "lots of 12-year-olds, i.e. the game’s Future." Imagine the NFL "making a habit of putting almost all its postseason action on" at 10:00pm ET (CINCINNATI.com, 10/3).
