CBS announced its ratings for the first two American League playoff games Tuesday, touching off a small dispute with NBC.
According to CBS officials, the Nielsen ratings for the first two ALCS games were up slightly over last year`s night game ratings on NBC.
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Game 1 of the Oakland-Boston series received a 12.3 rating and a 24 share, and Sunday`s second game got a 14.2 rating and a 24 share. The two prime-time games of last year`s playoffs between Oakland and Toronto got ratings of 12.8 and 12.4.
”That`s like comparing apples and oranges,” said an NBC spokesman.
”Our ALCS games were on weeknights (a Tuesday and Friday) and theirs were on the weekend, when the ratings are always higher.”
Game 1 of the National League playoffs got a 12.2 rating and a 21 share, down from the 15.4 rating of last year`s NL opener. Ratings for Game 2, played Friday afternoon, won`t be available until Thursday.