ESPN has announced it received its highest Sunday Night Baseball overnight rating since 2009. Both games involved the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. While fans across the country may say they’re sick of seeing these two teams play, they obviously generate ratings. Last night, ESPN received a 3.5 overnight rating which is its highest since 2009 when the same two teams played and received a 3.7 rating. In addition, the ratings in Boston and New York were quite high.
Needless, to say, last night’s game beat last year’s game in the same period by 119%! Let’s take a look at the blurb.
Sunday Night Baseball: Yankees/Red Sox Generates 3.5 Overnight Rating
ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox last night (April 10) generated a 3.5 overnight rating, according to Nielsen, which would rank as the network’s highest-rated MLB telecast 2009 (Yankees/Red Sox, August 23 – 3.7 rating). The SNB telecast was up 119 percent over last year’s comparable game (St. Louis/Milwaukee, April 11 – 1.6 overnight rating) and 35 percent over the first Yankees/Red Sox matchup of the season in 2010 (May 9 – 2.6 overnight rating). In Boston, the game delivered a 17.8 metered market rating, to become ESPN’s highest-rated MLB regular-season game in the market since Yankees/Red Sox in 2009 (April 26 – 20.7). In New York, the game posted a 8.0 metered market rating.
This week’s SNB telecast, the Yankees hosting the Texas Rangers on April 17 at 8 p.m., will feature this year’s new commentator teams – Dan Shulman, analysts Orel Hershiser and Bobby Valentine and reporters Wendi Nix and Buster Olney on TV; and Jon Sciambi and Chris Singleton on ESPN Radio. Sunday Night games are also available on ESPN Radio, ESPN Deportes, ESPN3.com and ESPN Mobile TV. Baseball Tonight, with host Karl Ravech and analysts John Kruk and Barry Larkin, will be on site from Yankee Stadium, previewing the game at 7 p.m.
And that’s it.
