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Postseason Baseball Sets Viewership Records

Oct 18, 2016  •  Post A Comment

The 2016 Major League Baseball postseason, which has been living up to its reputation as one of the most dramatic postseasons in pro sports, is drawing large numbers of eyeballs. Fox Sports announced that game two of the National League Championship Series set viewership records on FS1 and Fox Deportes.

Sunday’s game at Chicago’s Wrigley Field saw the Los Angeles Dodgers pull out a 1-0 win to even the series against the Chicago Cubs at 1-1 behind the pitching of Clayton Kershaw. Fox announced that the game delivered an average audience of 7.291 million viewers on FS1 to become the network’s most watched telecast of all time, based on Nielsen fast national figures.

“Sunday night’s 7,291,000 average audience is up +67% over 2014’s comparable NLCS Game 2 for San Francisco Giants-St. Louis Cardinals (vs. 4,367,000 viewers) on FS1. Additionally, [Sunday] night’s viewership is up +174% over 2015’s ALCS Game 2 for Toronto Blue Jays-Kansas City Royals (vs. 2,657,000 viewers) that aired on the network,” the announcement notes.

Fox adds: “Among the hometown markets, NLCS Game 2 set record high overnight ratings for FS1 in both Los Angeles (10.8) and Chicago (23.9).”

Additionally, the telecast on Fox Deportes was the most watched League Championship Series in the history of Spanish-language television, averaging 291,000 viewers.

“Through two games, the NLCS on FS1 is averaging 6,525,000 viewers, up +43% from last year’s Toronto-Kansas City ALCS (vs. 4,555,000 viewers) on FS1/FBC and up +40% over the first two NLCS games of 2014’s Giants-Cardinals NLCS (vs. 4,677,000 viewers) on FS1/FBC,” the announcement notes, adding: “Game 2 punctuates a record-setting week, as it was FS1’s most watched week ever, nearly doubling the prior record 2 years ago.”

Game 3 is set for tonight, Tuesday, Oct. 18, with coverage starting at 7:30 p.m. ET.

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