N.Y. Mets’ Game 5 Win Over L.A. Dodgers Draws 7.4M Viewers; NFL Ratings Steady

It was one of those nights when sports reigned with the New York Mets’ series-clinching 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers (sorry guys) getting big viewership on TBS and the New Orleans Saints beating the Atlanta Falcons 31-21 on Thursday Night Football (3.5/11) on CBS. All that on-field activity saw almost everyone else on the Big 4 and the CW either flat or down.

The one exception was the CW’s The Originals (0.5/2), which was up 25% from its Season 3 premiere October 8. The same could not be said of lead-in The Vampire Diaries (0.6/2), which was even with its Season 7 opener last week.

As for those sports numbers, it looks good all round. As for baseball, well, when you have teams from the nation’s two biggest markets going head to head in what had been a tied National League Division Series, the numbers are going up — and they did. The pivotal Game 5 played in L.A. saw TBS snag a near-record 7.4 million viewers and a 4.5 household rating, up 21% and 15%, respectively, over the 2013 NLDS Game 5 on the cabler.

Overall, last night’s Mets-Dodgers game was the second-most-watched NLDS game on TBS ever. For some more math: The game pulled in a 5.8 in metered market ratings, not only the best any postseason baseball game has done this year but also slides into home plate as the best any baseball game has done on cable in four years.

In the N.Y. market, last night’s game drew a 18.4 household rating, the best any division game has done for TBS in the nation’s largest market. In L.A., the game drew an 11.0 HH rating. Right now, TBS’ airing of the MLB Postseason is averaging about 5.7 million total viewers, a jump up of 47% in audience over 2014’s games and currently matching 2007 as the network’s most-watched postseason.

CBS and the NFL Network’s TNF was up 3% from last week’s fast nationals, which went up to a 5.0/7 rating among adults 18-49. In metered markets, last night’s Saints-Falcons game scored a 10.4/17. While a season low, that result is just a 2% touch down from last week. Expect those TNF numbers to rise when we see the final nationals.

As for the non-sporting rest…

ABC’s Shondaland night saw Grey’s Anatomy (2.2/8) even with its October 8 episode, while Scandal (2.3/7) was down 12% and How To Get Away With Murder (2.0/7) slipped 9%. Both Bones (1.1/4) and Sleepy Hollow (0.8/3) were down two tenths from last week – close to a ratings danger zone for the latter on the competitive night.

NBC’s Heroes Reborn (1.1/4) and The Blacklist (1.4/4) stayed reasonably steady with respective 8% and 7% dips from last week. It wasn’t so unpainful for freshman The Player (0.7/2): The Wesley Snipes-led series was down 22% in the key demo from its October 8 episode, the latest result matcing recent showings of Minority Report for the worst a new show has done this season so far.