In terms of sheer consumption metrics, baseball may have ceded the national pastime crown to the gridiron game long ago, but a New York-Los Angeles National League Championship Series has stolen share from the NFL’s top primetime window.
According to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data, the latest installment of NBC’s put up its lowest deliveries of the season thus far, as the Bengals’ 17-7 win over the Giants averaged 15.44 million TV viewers opposite the Dodgers’ Game 1 blowout of the Mets. That marks an 8% decline compared to the year-ago Giants-Bills snoozer that averaged 16.71 million viewers, and now technically stands as the least-watched SNF broadcast in four years. (Last season’s Dec. 23 Bengals-Steelers production, which scared up 14.29 million linear-TV viewers, aired on a Saturday night, when HUT levels are at their lowest.)
Opposite the primetime NFL showcase, the Dodgers’ 9-0 poleaxing of the Metropolitans averaged 8.26 million viewers, giving Fox bragging rights to the biggest MLB LCS opener since 2009. Chalk the big box office up to a combination of star power—check out this Shohei Ohtani kid when you get a chance; he looks like a real keeper—and market size; per Nielsen’s local market universe estimates for the 2024-25 broadcast season, NYC and LA are home to 13.33 million TV households, accounting for 10.6% of the national base.
In the Dodgers’ home market, 42% of all TVs in use during Game 1 were tuned in to Fox, while the divided New York DMA boasted a 20% share.
The last time the opening frame of a World Series qualifier put up bigger numbers was when the Yankees and Angels teed off the ALCS 15 years ago in front of a crowd of 8.44 million viewers. A Friday night broadcast, that 4-1 New York victory had the sports world all to itself, as it did not have to share the road with the NFL or college football. (The usual caveats about the steroidal impact of out-of-home ratings data since September of 2020 applies here.)
Through the first seven SNF broadcasts, NBC is averaging 19.76 million TV viewers per week, down 6% versus 21.12 million in the analogous stretch of the 2023 campaign. Some of that decline is down to rough comps; as it happens, NBC notched its biggest Sunday night numbers last year in Week 4 (Chiefs-Jets, 24.83 million) and Week 5 (Cowboys-49ers, 24.29 million). Note that the season-to-season comps do not include this year’s inaugural Peacock exclusive from Brazil; that said, when streaming impressions are added to the NBC flagship’s deliveries, the SNF average bumps up to approximately 22.55 million fans per week, which is effectively flat compared to last season’s combined turnout.
ESPN and ABC managed to avoid a similar fate the following night, as the Bills’ narrow victory over the Jets averaged 17.24 million viewers across the Disney TV platforms. While TBS countered with Game 1 of the ALCS, the Yankees’ 5-2 win over the Guardians averaged a relatively understated 3.82 million viewers opposite the AFC East battle. Reach is the culprit in this particular scenario; ABC, which accounted for nearly half (8.43 million) of Monday Night Football’s deliveries, beams its signal to 15.5 million more homes than TBS.
The MNF audience is now well on its way to rebounding from an earlier 10% drop, in light of the NFL’s decision to gift ABC with a half-dozen additional simulcasts.
As usual, October is Fox’s time to shine, and Sunday was no exception. Although the network’s national broadcast crew was saddled with Detroit’s 47-9 demolition of Dallas in 95% of their available markets, the Lions’ easy win still managed to serve up a week-high 24.06 million viewers. That was down 8% from last year’s Eagles-Jets squeaker, which averaged 26.09 million in 63% of all markets.
Baseball’s incursion on the NFL’s audience has sent the league’s TV average trending below last season’s deliveries for the first time since football kicked off in September. MLB may continue to make things interesting for the Shield as the Dodgers and Mets are knotted up at 1-1 and the Yanks steam into Cleveland with a 2-0 advantage; as things stand today, a World Series that begins on Oct. 25 will overlap with the NFL only once.
Unless a speedy resolution of the ALCS and NLCS triggers an earlier starting date, the single overlap between football and baseball will occur on Monday, Oct. 28, when Game 3 of the Fall Classic butts heads with a Giants-Steelers outing that has all the markings of a 6-4 NFL Scorigami.
Down the road, NBC’s next opportunities to churn out huge SNF deliveries include the latest meeting in the Cowboys-49ers rivalry on Oct. 27 (an MLB travel day) and a must-see Lions-Texans air war on Nov. 10.
