Yankees-Astros on ESPN Delivers Highest-Rated MLB Wild Card Game Ever

[double crush bus music in background]

 

Where are all those complaining that the Astros get no love in Houston?

 

Rockets get the highest ratings.
Astros get the highest ratings.


H-Town reppin!!

Spoiler

Now win some damn championships

 

Slow down there, we played the Yankees last night.

 

And people only care about football? Good stuff Houston and America!

 

Given that there have only ever been 2 "wild card games" prior to this and neither involved a market like the Yankees (KC, Oakland, Pitt, San Fran), I'm not sure this is terribly noteworthy.

And ESPN doesn't normally have playoff games, so that part isn't surprising either.

 

Highest rated baseball game on ESPN in 12 years though.... that's noteworthy enough.

 

Would be interested to see how many of those were Yankees fans.

 

True. But when was the last time ESPN televised playoff games? Serious question. All games this year are by TBS and FOX (and FS1). It does kind of make sense that their highest rated game this year was the one postseason game they televised and that it was between two big market teams. When was the last time ESPN televised a playoff series?

 

Talking with many Yankee fans, there wasn't that much interest in NY for the game... they were more fearing that the end of the year slump was a telling sign of the older team collectively running out of gas, and they were deathly afraid of facing Keuchel.

Pre-game ESPN Twitter poll had 60% picking the Astros to win... indicating there could have simply been a large out of NY audience tuning in just to watch the Yankees lose.

 

They've televised scores of regular season games and playoff series within the last 12 years. TBS only started with the playoffs within the last 5 years.

ESPN was once the sole tie-breaker/LDS network. Now, they just get one WC game a year (for the playoffs), but are still the "marquee" MLB network during the season (with featured Wednesday/Sunday night games).

Its still notable that this was the highest rated baseball game period on that network in 12 years... featuring an over the hill Yankee team that usually obnoxious Yankee fans weren't confident in.

 

I wonder how the ratings will be tomorrow night with the Texans playing the Colts.

 

"Generated a 14.8 rating in the Houston, making it the highest-rated MLB game ever on ESPN in the market. It drew a 12.0 rating in New York, making it the highest-rated MLB game on ESPN in the market since 2012."

 

From this link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major...2C_Fox_Sports_1.2C_TBS.2C_and_ESPN_era:_2007-

It doesn't appear they have been broadcasting playoff games since at least 2007, and their previous contract only gave them rights to the day games and late night games. So this is basically the first primetime playoff game they've broadcast in who-knows-how-long.

No regular season game should ever get ratings remotely close to a playoff game, so those games are sort of irrelevant.

Again, in both cases, it's also the only playoff game in that timeframe on ESPN covering those teams, so not really surprising. Or possibly the Astros played a few day games on ESPN in the past, but never prime time.

 

Ahhh, can't get Darude - Sandstorm outta my head after that victory last night. Freakin Club Astros

 

I don't think it is surprising but it should be for those shouting that the city of Houston doesn't pay attention to the Astros. Obviously the Texans are still the most popular team in the city (thanks to the popularity of the league and the limited number of games) and will probably get more viewership on Thursday; but I would bet the same in KC if the Chiefs were playing. And the Royals have a really strong fan base.

 

Well, I'd like to see what those numbers were compared to TBS or FS1's numbers over the last few years.

Chances are, its comparable if not better altogether.

 

love it

 

Awesome.