ESPN Averages 4 Million Viewers for Yanks-Nationals Opening Night Baseball Telecast

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ESPN drew a record 4 million viewers for its New York Yankees-Washington Nationals Major League Baseball opening night telecast.

The game was the most watched regular season game on any network since 2011, and bested the previous record of 3.7 million viewers set by the St. Louis Cardinals-Chicago Cubs game in 2017, according to Nielsen. 

Last year’s Boston Red Sox-Seattle Mariners season opening night telecast drew 1.2 million viewers, said Nielsen.

ESPN’s San Francisco Giants-Los Angeles Dodgers telecast averaged 2.7 million viewers, making it the most watched ESPN late night game ever.

Both games opened baseball’s truncated 60-game regular season schedule after the coronavirus pandemic delayed baseball’s traditional season start by three months. 

R. Thomas Umstead
R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.