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NBC Sports has completed the first year in its return to MLB broadcasting, and it’s handing off coverage of the league’s postseason to Fox Sports and TNT Sports with a great deal of momentum.
Tuesday’s Game 1 of the AL wild card series between the Red Sox and Yankees averaged 7.3 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, despite going up against heavy competition that included the start of the 2026–27 NHL season and the WNBA playoffs. The primetime baseball audience represented the most-watched Game 1 among MLB wild card series or Division Series on any network since the opening of the 2006 ALDS between the Tigers and Yankees on Fox.
The audience also marked a 12% bump from the comparable Game 1 last year between the Red Sox and Yankees, aired on ESPN.
A Tuesday afternoon wild-card game between the Phillies and Braves on NBC and Peacock, meanwhile, averaged 3.9 million viewers. That marked a 15% lift from the comparable game in 2025, as well as the most-watched afternoon wild-card game in league history.
Viewership figures from the rest of the wild-card games, shown exclusively on NBC platforms, are expected in the coming days. The initial audience lift, though, represents an emphatic coda to the Comcast-owned network’s return to baseball this year. NBC Sports signed a three-year rights deal with the league late last year, and this week marked its first MLB postseason games since the 2000 AL Championship Series.
The network extended a successful production strategy from the regular season in which it paired national play-by-play announcers with local, team-based color analysts.
Looking Ahead
The completion of the wild-card round also sets up four Division Series that are rife with subplots. Among the specific matchups:
- Yankees-Rays. After completing a long-awaited stadium deal earlier this year, the upstart Rays are the No. 1 AL seed, despite having MLB’s fourth-smallest luxury-tax payroll $114.2 million. For the Yankees, all eyes will be on whether they activate injured superstar Aaron Judge, currently rehabilitating from an injured calf.
- White Sox-Guardians. This AL Central clash is another battle of low-budget underdogs, with Cleveland holding MLB’s second-smallest payroll, and Chicago coming in with the fifth-smallest. The White Sox also have the full backing of Southside Chicago native and ardent fan Pope Leo XIV, who wrote a recent note of encouragement to the team.
- Braves-Dodgers. After playing and winning the only deciding Game 3 of the wild-card round, Atlanta will try to knock out Los Angeles, the two-time defending World Series champions. The Dodgers will have a relatively healthy Shohei Ohtani, who has battled knee and arm injuries.
- Padres-Brewers. Newly installed Padres owners Jose E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones have done little but celebrate since recently completing a $3.9 billion acquisition of the club, an arrival that has coincided with San Diego playing some of its best baseball in years. Milwaukee, meanwhile, is the NL’s No. 1 seed despite operating in MLB’s smallest media market. Neither club has won a World Series in their respective franchise histories.
The ALDS will be shown on TNT Sports, while Fox Sports will carry the NLDS.
