Blue Jays fever had records breaking on Sportsnet last weekend, as the series opener against the Yankees brought the channel’s highest-ever viewership.
The Friday night opener saw an average audience of 2.03 million viewers, besting the previous record for the channel, which came from last fall’s NHL season opener between the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs, according to Numeris overnight data provided by Rogers Media. That game had an average audience of 2.01 million viewers.
Audience levels for Friday’s nail-biter peaked at 10:19 p.m. during Blue Jays shortstop Troy Tulowitzki’s 12-pitch at-bat with two out at the bottom of the ninth inning.
Overall, the three-game series between the division rivals brought an average audience of 1.53 million viewers to Sportsnet. Saturday’s afternoon game had an average audience of 1.23 million and Sunday’s series closer had an average audience of 1.27 million.
The series takes over as the most-watched for the Jays on Sportsnet, breaking the record last held by the series against the Yankees at the beginning of August. That series had an average audience of 1.29 million viewers.
Blue Jays ratings are up 24% over 2014 for the year-to-date, delivering an average audience of 727,000 viewers on Sportsnet. Sunday’s game against the Yankees was the 16th game this season to bring over one million viewers.
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