Royals’ exhibition game Monday against Astros was a TV ratings winner
A year ago, the Royals suffered through a second straight 100-loss season but Kansas City was still among the top markets for Major League Baseball games on television.
According to Forbes, the Royals had the ninth-best ratings on a regional sports network among 29 Major League Baseball teams based in the United States. The Royals games on Fox Sports Kansas City drew an average rating of 4.4 in 2019.
Despite a break of nearly four months because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Royals fans were eager to watch Monday night’s exhibition game against the Houston Astros at Kauffman Stadium.
The game drew a 4.1 rating, which Fox Sports Kansas City said was the highest-rated prime time program (7-10 p.m.) in Kansas City.
Monday’s rating was significantly higher than what FSKC normally sees for an exhibition game. The network said 10 exhibition games on FSKC in 2018 averaged just a 0.8 rating.
This year’s three games at spring training averaged a 0.8 rating, so Monday’s game was an increase of 412.5% of what Fox Sports KC normally sees.
This story was originally published July 21, 2020 at 2:19 PM.
