OSC Weekly Ratings Wrapup

by David Carlson
November 6, 2019 - Major League Soccer (MLS)

MLS season coming to an end with two semi-final performances this past week, and MLS Cup on Sunday, Nov 10

MLS played its semi-finals this past week, with the first game on ESPN on 10/29 at 10pm featuring LA Football Club against Seattle. The game received a .16 demo rating and 389,000 total viewers. In the second game on 10/30 at 8pm, Fox Sports 1 drew a .15 and 359,000 viewers for Atlanta vs. Toronto in a broadcast that went up against Game 7 of the World Series.

Last year saw a two-game aggregate format with games played on Nov. 25 and 29. On the 25th, ESPN earned a .14/334k (NYRB vs. ATL), and FS1 a .10/237k (Portland/KC). On Thursday evening the 29th FS1 started at 7:30pm with a .11/266 (NYRB vs. ATL) and ESPN followed up with the Portland/KC game bringing in a .16/353k rating.

From a daily comparison standpoint on the averages:

Considering that this year had a non-U.S. market in Toronto, a net drop in Nielsen market percentage of the teams participating in the playoff round from 10.37% in 2018 to 8.578%, and one of the games going against a World Series Game 7, the ratings jump has to be seen as a positive sign.

Seattle will host Toronto for MLS Cup 2019 on Sunday Nov. 10 at 3pm on ABC. We will have a wrap-up of the MLS Cup ratings and season next week, as well as a look at the "Top 10" storylines in OSC League TV ratings in 2019 before the Grey Cup later this month.

Follow OSC TV and ratings discussion at https://twitter.com/OsctvR.

NOTE: Don't know what the "demo" is? Unsure of why the different ratings numbers don't match up? Read our explanation of TV ratings in our first article here.

• Discuss this story on the Major League Soccer message board...

Major League Soccer Stories from November 6, 2019

• One Year Anniversary of Miami Freedom Park Referendum - Inter Miami CF
• Pike Place Market Raises the Sounders FC Flag Tomorrow, November 7, at 3:30 p.m. PT - Seattle Sounders FC
• Four Timbers Players Called in for International Duty - Portland Timbers
• Defender Jukka Raitala Selected by the Finland National Team - Club de Foot Montreal
• Timbers, Allstate Award Local Schools Champions of Play Grants - Portland Timbers
• Bryan Acosta, Zdenek Ondrasek Called into National Team Duty - FC Dallas
• Real Salt Lake FW Jefferson Savarino and MF Albert Rusnak Earn International Call-Ups - Real Salt Lake
• Columbus Crew SC Names Clive Brewer Director of High Performance - Columbus Crew SC
• OSC Weekly Ratings Wrapup - OSC Original by David Carlson
• OSC Weekly Ratings Wrapup - OSC Original by David Carlson
• OSC Weekly Ratings Wrapup - OSC Original by David Carlson

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer(s), and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.