Mets-Cubs Game 2 Down Vs. NFL But Still Big For TBS

The baseball gods have smiled on TBS this postseason: Teams from the top two TV markets — the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers — squared off in the opening playoff round, which went the full five games, and now the Mets are taking on the No. 3 market team, the Chicago Cubs, who also have a broad national following, in the NLCS.

The Turner-owned cable net said today that Game 2, in which the Mets coasted to a 4-1 home win, averaged 6.6 million total viewers and a 4.1 HH rating. That’s down 16% from Saturday’s series opener, hindered by a marquee Sunday Night Football matchup between Tom Brady’s New England Patriots and Andrew Luck’s Indianapolis Colts. Still, it set a Game 2 NLCS record for TBS, which last aired the NLCS in 2013. The Mets-Cubs series so far is up 53% in total viewers and 37% in HH rating over that’s year’s Dodgers-St. Louis Cardinals series, and Game 2 was up 94% and 73%, respectively.

Sunday night’s game peaked with an average of 7.5 million total viewers from 9-9:15 PM ET and averages a 19 rating in Chicago and 16.6 in NYC. The series shifts to Chicago’s Wrigley Field for Games 3 and 4 on Tuesday and Wednesday on TBS.