Major League Baseball’s hot streak of television viewership continued through the second round of the playoffs and into the start of the third round.

After the league posted across-the-board audience increases in the regular season and the wild-card round, it ended the division series round with an average per-game viewership of 4.17 million, up 17% from last year and the best such figure since 2011. Among the other viewership figures from the division series:

• Game 5 of the Tigers-Mariners series on Oct. 10, a 15-inning thriller won by Seattle, averaged 8.72 million on Fox. That represented the most-watched American League Division Series games in 14 years.
• Postseason viewership through the first two rounds is averaging 4.33 million per game, up 30% from last year. That’s also the highest level since 2010, buoyed in part by record-setting figures in the wild-card round. 
• The Yankees–Blue Jays ALDS matchup, won by Toronto, averaged 7.65 million across both Canada and the U.S. Canadian viewership is not part of the U.S.-based figures from Nielsen. Within Canada, though, the average of 3.65 million per game was up 10% compared to nine years ago, when the Blue Jays were last in the ALDS. 

More Up North 

That latter average, meanwhile, is about 9% of the total Canadian population. Similar penetration in the U.S. would be equivalent to a viewing audience of more than 30 million, which is a typical audience for an early-round NFL postseason game. 

The initial stages of the championship series round, meanwhile, have also performed well. Despite Canadian viewership not factoring into the U.S.-based Nielsen data, Fox said that Game 1 of the American League Championship Series between the Mariners and Blue Jays averaged 5.31 million viewers, up 32% from the comparable game last year between the Guardians and Yankees on TNT Sports.

When including another 4.7 million in Canada, though, Game 1 of the ALCS surpassed 10 million in average viewership. 

The escalation in MLB viewership extends what has been a resurgent season for the league across many key audience metrics, also including attendance.

“It’s a continuation of the momentum that we’ve seen in the game,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said last month at the Front Office Sports Tuned In summit.

The Red River Rivalry was the most-watched college football game of Week 7 action, as 8.7 million people watched Texas defeat Oklahoma 23–6 on ABC.

That marks the largest TV audience for a Texas-Oklahoma regular-season matchup since 2009.

The second meeting of the Longhorns and Sooners, squaring off as SEC members, beat out the Indiana-Oregon Big Ten clash on CBS, which also aired at 3:30 p.m. ET and averaged 5.6 million viewers. The Hoosiers’ 30–20 upset over the Ducks was only the fourth most-watched game of the day, behind all three SEC contests on ABC.

• Oklahoma-Texas: 8.7 million (ABC)
• Alabama-Missouri: 7 million (ABC)
• Georgia-Auburn: 6.7 million (ABC)
• Indiana-Oregon: 5.6 million (CBS)
• Ohio State–Illinois: 5.28 million (Fox)

USC’s 31–13 win over Michigan drew 4.3 million viewers on NBC on Saturday night, going head-to-head with Georgia-Auburn. Alabama-Missouri beat out Ohio State–Illinois in the noon window.

Ratings Surge

Now halfway through college football’s regular season, ABC is still off to its best start on record, averaging 6.9 million viewers per game. ESPN networks are off to their best start since 2002, averaging an audience of 2.4 million.

Games in Fox’s Big Noon Saturday window are averaging 5.87 million viewers, which is 35% compared to the first seven weeks of the 2024 season.

The ratings momentum continues what was already a strong college football season across all TV networks.

Even after forging a plan to pay for their own stadium on team-owned land, the Bears are facing new obstacles in their suburban stadium push.

Six weeks after the NFL team detailed a revised vision to build a domed stadium and mixed-use development in Arlington Heights, Ill., a state legislator has filed a new bill that threatens to delay or revise the plan. 

The proposed legislation from state representative Kam Buckner, who is from Chicago and has firmly opposed the team’s intended move out of the city, contains several potentially impactful measures, including:

• A requirement for Illinois sports franchises to reimburse schools, libraries, and emergency services for lost property taxes due to stadium deals. The Bears have long sought a greater ability to negotiate their own property taxes with Arlington Heights, and the Buckner bill would cut heavily into that.
• A requirement for financial agreements on stadium projects to be posted online for a month before finalizing, as well as a public report and open hearing. Many such details have historically been kept private by sports teams.
• A requirement to produce annual reports on job creation and tax revenue generated from a new stadium.
• Full repayment of all public subsidies, plus annual compounded interest, if a team moves or fails to meet other economic commitments.

“Building up our state’s economy and securing long-term prosperity is about putting our money where it will do the most good, not spending it on magic beans and hoping for the best,” Buckner said.

The latest legislation, entitled the Stadium Transparency and Responsible Spending (STARS) Act, potentially creates a further time crunch around the Bears project. The team has said that the overall stadium cost, already more than $5 billion, rises by more than $10 million per month. It’s not likely that the bill will be approved in the state’s fall legislative session, but Buckner intends for this to be at least the start of a broader conversation around the stadium financing. 

Notably, the Bears have already backed off a prior ask for direct state funding for the stadium, in the wake of significant opposition from Gov. J.B. Pritzker and other key leaders. Instead, the team seeks $855 million in public support toward infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Pritzker has said the Bears should pay off outstanding debt on Soldier Field, the team’s current home, from a 2003 renovation before any legislation related to the Arlington Heights project is considered. That debt stands at more than $534 million. 

The Browns grappled with somewhat similar issues in recent months, facing repeated maneuvers from the city of Cleveland to block a planned move to suburban Brook Park, Ohio, before reaching a $100 million settlement earlier this week.