Wednesday Night Baseball
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| Wednesday Night Baseball | |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 32 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 3 hours (approximate) |
| Original release | |
| Network | ESPN |
| Release | April 18, 1990 – September 29, 2021 |
| Related | |
Wednesday Night Baseball was a live game telecast of Major League Baseball every Wednesday night during the regular season on ESPN that was broadcast from 1990 to 2021. Beginning with the 2022 Major League Baseball season, ESPN significantly reduced their MLB schedule, which included cutting most of their Wednesday Night Baseball games.
On ESPN, the game started at 7:00 pm ET, following SportsCenter, and usually lasted around three hours with an hour-long Baseball Tonight following the game leading up to the 11:00 pm ET SportsCenter (1:00 am ET for September games with Baseball Tonight moving to ESPN2 at 12:00 am ET). Every April some broadcasts aired on ESPN2 due to ESPN's priority with Wednesday NBA coverage.
Wednesday Night Baseball was not exclusive, as it is usually blacked out in the teams' local markets, where the respective local broadcasters could still air the game, unless local broadcasters chose not to televise the game.
History
The program debuted in 1990, when ESPN first acquired MLB rights. This gave ESPN to have Sunday Night Baseball and Wednesday Night Baseball. From 2000 to 2005, broadcasts consisted of a doubleheader, usually airing the first game at 7:00 pm ET on ESPN and the second at 10:00 pm ET on ESPN2. The second part of the doubleheader was discontinued after the 2005 season in favor of regular broadcasts of Monday Night Baseball.
The issues with the program were forecasted almost immediately: a reviewer in 1990 stated that in order to survive Wednesday Night Baseball has to become a staple like Major League Baseball Game of the Week which will "strain the cable marketers to their limits", as there is only so much sports programming viewers can watch and pay for.[1]
Wednesdays also formerly included an afternoon game, called ESPN DayGame which aired typically at 12:30 pm or 1:00 pm ET on ESPN, making Wednesdays ESPN's primary day of baseball, as games aired both in the afternoon and in primetime. However, ESPN DayGame was also discontinued following the 2006 season.
In 2021, ESPN agreed to a new contract with MLB through the 2028 season. However, the deal included only around 30 exclusive broadcasts, 25 of which took place on Sunday Night Baseball,[2][3][4][5] ending the regular broadcast of Wednesday Night Baseball.
References
- ^ Kohn, E. H. (4 March 1990). "Viewers Will Pay if Cable TV's Gamble Fails". St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
- ^ Hughes, Katie. "The Walt Disney Company, ESPN and Major League Baseball Reach Long-Term Rights Extension for Fully Exclusive, Marquee Schedule". ESPN Press Room (Press release). Retrieved 2021-05-23.
- ^ Harrigan, Thomas (May 13, 2021). "MLB, ESPN extend deal through 2028". MLB.com. Retrieved 2024-01-15.
- ^ "ESPN extends deal to air MLB games through '28". ESPN.com. 2021-05-13. Retrieved 2024-01-15.
- ^ Bucholtz, Andrew (2021-05-13). "ESPN announces new MLB deal through 2028, with TV broadcasts dropping from 90 to 30 annually but remaining ones all exclusive". Awful Announcing. Retrieved 2024-01-15.