The excitement on the field at Chavez Ravine translated into record marks on TV and TVE screens for Fox Sports 1.
In its first day of MLB postseason action, FS1's exclusive presentation of Game 1 of the National League Division Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers on Oct. 3 averaged 3.59 million viewers, according to Nielsen fast national data.
The game -- a 10-9 nailbiter in which the Cardinals knocked Cy Young front-runner Clayton Kershaw from the box (pictured) during an eight-run,seventh inning, and then had to hold off the Dodgers which had the tying run on third with two outs in the bottom of the night -- eclisped FSI's previous Nielsen mark of 5.23 million watchers for NASCAR Sprint Unlimited event on Feb. 15.
The 14-month-old service also connected on its highest-rated and most-watched weekday daytime and non-primetime program, drawing 2.04 million viewers for its coverage of the opener of the other NLDS -- a 3-2 triumph by the San Francisco Giants over the Washington Nationals.
The home markets for yesterday’s NLDS games set individual market ratings for a televised event on FS1. St. Louis (17.4) and Los Angeles (7.1) each set their mark for the Cardinals-Dodgers contest, while Washington DC (6.9) and San Francisco (6.6) set theirs for the Giants-Nationals tilt. The Los Angeles DMA also set a new household reach mark for a single market watching an FS1 event with 392,000.
Digitally, Fox officials said that Friday marked the best day ever for authenticated viewership for on the Fox Sports GO, as both NLDS matchups attracted more than twice the streams on the platform's previous high-water mark for a baseball event, surpassing the 2014 MLB All-Star Game.
