The friendly confines of Wrigley Field didn’t seem so friendly to the Cubs, and TBS must be hoping for a miracle that stretches this series out to five games…or at least four. The Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Chicago Cubs game drew the most viewers of any of the game ones, with 5.381 million average viewers for game one. The Boston Red Sox vs. the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim was the next most watched, with 4.442 million.
In fairness, of game one, not all of the difference in the lead is the markets. The game one for the Milwaukee Brewers vs. Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago White Sox vs. the Tampa Bay Rays both took place during the daytime.
Here are the Nielsen numbers for all the game ones of the Division Series round of the playoffs. As of this writing we haven’t seen any of the game two numbers:
| Game | Network | Viewers P2+ |
| Dodgers – Cubs | TBS | 5,381,000 |
| Red Sox – Angels | TBS | 4,442,000 |
| Brewers – Phillies | TBS | 2,764,000 |
| White Sox – Rays | TBS | 2,610,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company
As I guessed, Brewers, Phillies, White Sox, and Rays are nearly equivalently bad for ratings. In this round, one marquis team gets you 4+ million, two marquis teams gets you 5+ million.
Unfortunately for the broadcasters, a two marquis team matchup isn’t possible again until the World Series. They’ve just got to hope for no more zero marquis team matchups.
though I’m sure you’re right that they are evenly bad for ratings, the skew above is an unfair as both of the lowest rated games were played in the daytime before primetime.
the times are just sort of weird in general due to accommodating both TBS and the local teams. For example, tonight’s Angels/Red Sox game starts at 9:30pm eastern.
yea, it was a silly contract mlb signed. why dont they have a general doubleheader with one game on tnt or something?
and you would figure that the 4th largest tv market would get better numbers than chi sox/rays. hmmmm.
I’m dying to know the numbers for Game 2 of the Dodgers-Cubs with that crazy 9:30 start time. If Game 1 did better with its 6:30 start time (which has always been considered too early), then what? I always hear that games have to start late (don’t get me started about the NBA Finals start times) because more people watch them that way.