Whoa, this is weird.
ESPN’s 2019 Sunday Night Baseball viewership is up three percent from 2018, according to Nielsen. The franchise is averaging 1,505,000 viewers through 10 telecasts, up from 1,460,000 viewers last year. In addition, ESPN has generated five consecutive weeks of year-over-year audience increases for Sunday Night Baseball.
The June 2 edition of Sunday Night Baseball, in which the Boston Red Sox defeated the New York Yankees, averaged 1,973,000 viewers, up 36 percent from 1,446,000 viewers for last year’s comparable game (Red Sox vs. Houston Astros). It is now ESPN’s most-watched Sunday Night Baseball telecast since August 12, 2018 (Chicago Cubs vs. Washington Nationals). Sunday’s telecast peaked with 2,565,000 viewers from 9-9:15 p.m. ET.
How is that possible? Every October I am told that West Coast fans have no way to follow baseball before 8pm eastern. Have they figured it out? Is it possible that the biggest portion of the population lies in the Eastern Time Zone? Maybe people just really like the matchups. Maybe the NFL is on to something with their crazy 6:30pm start for their championship.
Thanks to @FiddleElphier for putting this on my radar.