ESPN leans into rivalries for ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ schedule
Six straight Sunday Night Baseball matchups will feature the Yankees, Dodgers, or Mets.
ESPN is doubling down on baseball’s most prominent brands as it gears up for what could be its final year as the exclusive home of Sunday Night Baseball.
After pulling in its best numbers since 2018 with last weekend’s Subway Series — peaking at 3 million viewers — the Worldwide Leader is leaning into what works: New York, L.A., and the rivalries that come with them.
On Sunday, May 25, the Mets hosted the Dodgers at Citi Field in a matinee that should once again deliver solid viewership for ESPN. However, it competed with Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks on ABC in the same market.
Sticking with New York — specifically the orange and blue — the Mets aren’t disappearing from Sunday Night Baseball anytime soon. They’re already locked in for two more appearances: a late-June showdown with the Philadelphia Phillies and the Little League Classic in August against the Seattle Mariners.
But the real story came last week. ESPN can’t stop going back to the same well, as evidenced by the network selecting two top Major League Baseball rivalries for SNB on June 8 and June 15.
This coming Sunday, June 1, the network has a World Series rematch between the Yankees and Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. Then, those aforementioned rivalry games will start with Yankees-Red Sox on June 8 and Dodgers-Giants on June 15. And as mentioned before, if that wasn’t enough New York or LA, the Mets are back on SNB again, June 22 against Philly.
