ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball viewership is up four percent from the same time last year, according to Nielsen. Through five weeks, ESPN’s exclusive, national MLB game of the week is averaging 1,730,000 viewers. Additionally, this season’s Sunday Night Baseball viewership is up 40 percent from the 2020 full season average.

The May 8 telecast, in which the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Chicago Cubs 7-1, averaged 1,781,000 viewers, up two percent from the comparable game last season (Philadelphia Phillies vs. Atlanta Braves). The telecast peaked with 2,163,321 viewers from 8-8:15 p.m.

Sunday Night Baseball Presented by Taco Bell continues on May 15, at 7 p.m. ET when the San Francisco Giants visit the St. Louis Cardinals. Cardinals center fielder Harrison Bader is expected to be mic’d up for a live, in-game interview with the broadcast team of play-by-play voice Karl Ravech, analysts Eduardo Perez and David Cone and reporter Buster Olney. Bader was nominated to be mic’d up by Justin Turner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. ESPN has mic’d up a player for live, in-game interviews in all of its MLB telecasts in 2022.

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