One of baseball’s most exciting postseason contests drove TBS to a double-digit gain with its coverage of American League Wild Card action on Tuesday night.
TBS’s exclusive coverage of the Kansas City's ’ 9-8 win over Oakland in the 12th inning --it was the Royals' first playoff appearance since 1985 -- scored a 3.3 U.S. household rating, translating into 5.23 million viewers on average, according to Nielsen fast nationals data.
Those Sept. 30 deliveries represented respective gains of 10% and 14% from the 3.0 and 4.6 million viewers for the corresponding opener of the 2013 MLB playoffs -- the National League Wild Card game won by the Pittsburgh Pirates over the Cincinnati Reds, which also aired on a Tuesday night.
In addition to propelling TBS to win the night in cable, Royals-A’s scored a 10% increase over the 3.0 average for both Wild Card telecasts on the network iin 2013, and a 12% gain above the 4.7 million for last year’s pair that also included Cleveland’s win over Tampa in the junior circuit.
Under MLB’s new rights deal, ESPN returns to the postseason for the first time since 2006 with its coverage of Wednesday night’s Pirates-San Francisco Giants senior circuit Wild Card affair.
The 2014 MLB postseason will continue on TBS – home of the American League throughout the postseason – with an A.L. Division Series doubleheader on Thursday, Oct. 4. The network’s live game coverage of the openers of the best-of-five game series will feature the Detroit Tigers visiting the Baltimore Orioles at 5:30 p.m., followed by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim hosting Kansas City at 9 p.m.
