Major League Baseball (MLB) elected to choose wokes over their fans as they relocated the All-Star Game to Denver.
The fans appear to be letting their feelings be known.
Sunday Night Baseball, MBL’s flagship primetime offering, has seen a rating decrease 49 percent from last year.
According to Sports Media Watch:
A 7-inning Cardinals-Braves, Sunday Night Baseball game averaged just 931,000 viewers on ESPN over the weekend, down 49% from the comparable window in 2019 (Cubs-Dodgers: 1.84M) and the least-watched Sunday night game this season. The game aired opposite an NBA Game 7 (Hawks-Sixers: 6.16M) and partially overlapped with the final round of golf’s U.S. Open.
The show just how bad this is, consider the NBA has seen increased ratings from last year’s pandemic-plagued season. For example, game 2 of the Western Conference Finals saw a 66% increase from the comparable night in 2020. However still far below the 2019 season.
In all fairness, the MBL shared the stage with the NBA and the U.S. Open; but, consider this.
“The previous day, regional MLB action on FOX (Reds-Padres or White Sox-Astros) averaged 1.41 million — the least-watched FOX telecast of the season,” SMW reported. “The window was originally scheduled to include Cardinals-Braves, but the game was postponed. FS1 chipped in 261,000 for Tigers-Angels later in the night.”
So, MLB is not just tanking in primetime head-to-heads against other sports.
Furthermore, that is not all, SMW continued:
In other action, TBS averaged 359,000 for its season debut of A’s-Yankees last Sunday afternoon — unsurprisingly down 46% from its first game last season, which aired on the opening weekend of the months-delayed season (7/26/20 Yankees-Nationals: 659K). Compared to the network’s 2019 opener, viewership fell a more modest 9% (7/7/19 Yankees-Rays: 395K).
Going back to last week, ESPN averaged 445,000 for Red Sox-Braves last Wednesday — down 30% from 2019 (Brewers-Astros: 632K). The previous night’s Cubs-Mets game was healthier at 624,000, up 1% from Mets-Yankees in ’19 (617K). The same matchup drew 733,000 on June 14, the top weeknight MLB game since May 5.
These numbers are horrible and can attribute to the league’s Black Lives Matter embrace and the decision to pull the All-Star Game out of Georgia due to the state’s attempt to make cheating impossible for Democrats.