Cable overnights: Another MLB record

The MLB postseason is already on quite a roll.

The Wednesday game between the Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates scored the best viewership ever for a wild card contest, averaging 8.3 million total viewers, according to Nielsen.

It was also the most-watched MLB game on cable since 2011, dating back to a game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies on TBS that averaged 8.4.

It was easily the most-watched program of the day on cable, and it came a night after the New York Yankees-Houston Astros contest on ESPN scored that network’s best MLB audience in more than a decade.

The NL wild card on TBS was also up 60 percent in total viewers over the wild card game that the network aired last year.

It was a big night generally for cable. FX’s “American Horror Story” returned with a 3.0 adults 18-49 rating, down just a tenth from last season’s all-time best debut. It also averaged 5.8 million total viewers, down 300,000 from last year.

And the NHL season opener on NBCSN averaged 925,000 total viewers, down just a touch from the record 956,000 who tuned into last year’s opener. More than half that audience for the New York Rangers-Chicago Blackhawks game was adults 18-49.

And the debut of CNBC’s new show “Jay Leno’s Garage” became the most-watched debut in network history, drawing 916,000 total viewers at 10 p.m. It also set a record among adults 25-54 with 252,000 viewers and finished among the top five in its hour among key male demos.

Tags: cable, turner, sports tv, mlb, mlb ratings, tbs, cable overnights