Fox Sees LCS Ratings Increase, TBS Sees Record Lows

Fox may doing well thus far with postseason baseball ratings, but TBS has had a rough ride showing the just-completed National League Championship Series.

Fox drew a 5.7 large-market Nielsen rating for Game 2 of the Cleveland-Boston American League Championship series, up 16.3 percent over the comparable Mets-Cardinals NLCS Game Three last year, also played on Saturday night. But compared to the Detroit-Oakland ALCS Game Two from last season, which aired on a Wednesday night, Fox was down 16.2 percent from a year ago.

Meanwhile, TBS has seen the three lowest-rated primetime league championship series games in baseball history. The cable network drew just 3.6 percent of households for Colorado-Arizona Game One, followed by just 2.2 percent for Game Two on Friday. Sunday's D'Backs-Rockies Game Three jumped to 3.5 percent. The Rockies finished off the sweep last night.

Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

Those are gruesome numbers for a league championship series. But that's what happens when smaller markets (from the same region of the country) play each other. Two of the lowest rated World Series in history were Yankees-Mets in 2000 and Giants-Angels showdown in 2002.

In this year's Fall Classic, Fox would most certainly like to see Boston make it back, giving the Red Sox a chance to win a second World Series in three years. Cleveland-Colorado just won't bring the viewers in, though it would give the Indians a chance to end their curse. Cleveland last won the World Series in 1948.