The Detroit Tigers' 3-2 triumph over the New York Yankees in Game 5 of their American League Division series scored TBS's largest audience with that round of Major League Baseball's postseason and the tops since 2005.
TBS's exclusive Oct. 6 telecast connected with a 6.2 U.S. household rating and 9.72 million viewers, according to Nielsen data. That made the telecast the most-watched LDS game in cable history -- TBS has been airing the action since 2007, while ESPN and ABC Family predecessor, Fox Family and FX were previously in the MLB postseason game -- beating out the 5.9 U.S. rating and 9.23 million viewers for Game 4 of Cleveland-Yankees in the 2007 ALDS.
Moreover, Thursday night's game was the tops in the opening round of baseball's playoffs since Fox plated nearly 13.7 million watchers when the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim beat the Yankees in Game 5 of their 2005 ALDS.
Based on metered market ratings, TBS said it was the highest-rated network on Thursday in cable and third in all of television.
Naturally, local interest was keen with TBS earning am 18.3 rating in the New York DMA and a 27.6 in the Detroit area, according to Nielsen.
TBS -- which this year has exclusive rights to present the National League Championship Series, while Fox shows the AL version pitting the Tigers against the Texas Rangers -- concludes its exclusive Divisional Series coverage today with a pair of Game 5 matchups: the Arizona Diamondbacks at Milwaukee Brewers 5 p.m. (ET), followed by the St. Louis Cardinals at Philadelphia Phillies 8:30 p.m.
