Wednesday Night Baseball
| Wednesday Night Baseball | |
|---|---|
| Genre | American baseball game telecasts |
| Presented by | Various commentators |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 37 |
| Production | |
| Production locations | Various MLB stadiums (game telecasts) |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 210 minutes or until game ends (inc. adverts) |
| Production companies | Major League Baseball ESPN (1990–present) |
| Original release | |
| Network | ESPN |
| Release | April 18, 1990 – present |
| Related | |
| Baseball Tonight ESPN Major League Baseball Monday Night Baseball Sunday Night Baseball | |
Wednesday Night Baseball is a live game telecast of Major League Baseball during Wednesday nights in the regular season on ESPN or ESPN2. From 1990 to 2021, ESPN generally aired weekly games on Wednesday nights. 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 generally starts 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.
Until 2022, Wednesday Night Baseball was not exclusive and was 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. Since 2022, ESPN's limited Wednesday Night Baseball is now exclusive to the network.
History
1990–2021
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.
ESPN planned to show Blue Jays-Rangers on May 1, 1991. The ESPN president, at the time, Steve Bornstein was friends with the Texas Rangers manager Bobby Valentine. If Valentine told Bornstein that Nolan Ryan was pitching (or if he had left a voice mail), the network would have aired the game. Valentine called Bornstein and claimed that he's expecting Nolan Ryan to pitch on Friday, instead of Wednesday. However, to no one's surprise, Nolan Ryan ended up pitching and broke the MLB record of career no-hitters with seven, which hasn't been beaten or tied ever since.[1]
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.[2]
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.
2022–2025
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,[3][4][5][6] ending the regular broadcast of Wednesday Night Baseball, however most of the remaining games since 2022 have aired on Wednesday.
Games from 2022 to 2025
| Year | Date and time (ET) | Matchup | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | July 6, 7:00 p.m. | Cardinals | Braves |
| July 27, 7:00 p.m. | Yankees | Mets | |
| 2023 | June 14, 7:00 p.m. | Yankees | Mets |
| June 14, 10:00 p.m. | White Sox | Dodgers | |
| July 26, 7:00 p.m. | Braves | Red Sox | |
| 2024 | July 10, 7:00 p.m. | Dodgers | Phillies |
| July 24, 7:00 p.m. | Mets | Yankees | |
| 2025 | July 2, 8:00 p.m. | Guardians | Cubs |
| July 9, 7:00 p.m. | Mets | Orioles | |
| September 24, 8:00 p.m. | Mets | Cubs | |
2026–present
On February 20, 2025, ESPN informed MLB that it had agreed to mutually opt out of its current contract after the conclusion of the 2025 season.[7][8]
On November 19, 2025, ESPN announced a restructured three-year deal with MLB. Under this new deal, ESPN would televise a 30-game schedule primarily on summer weeknights, ending Sunday Night Baseball.[9] For the 2026 season, ESPN announced that 10 games would air on Wednesday nights.[10]
References
- ^ JaguarGator7 (April 20, 2023). "The WORST BASEBALL BROADCASTING DECISION in ESPN HISTORY" – via YouTube.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Kohn, E. H. (March 4, 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 May 23, 2021.
- ^ Harrigan, Thomas (May 13, 2021). "MLB, ESPN extend deal through 2028". MLB.com. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
- ^ "ESPN, MLB announce seven-year extension running through 2028". ESPN.com. May 13, 2021. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
- ^ Bucholtz, Andrew (May 13, 2021). "ESPN announces new MLB deal through 2028, with TV broadcasts dropping from 90 to 30 annually but remaining ones all exclusive". Awful Announcing. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
- ^ Marchand, Andrew (March 4, 2025). "Marchand: With ESPN opt-out, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred creates another TV mess". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 12, 2025.
- ^ Kleen, Brendon (February 20, 2025). "MLB, ESPN mutually opt out of broadcast deal, with league citing decrease in studio show coverage". Awful Announcing. Retrieved March 12, 2025.
- ^ Feuz, Alex (November 19, 2025). "ESPN, Major League Baseball reach innovative new agreement featuring significant collection of national and local rights". ESPN Press Room. Retrieved November 19, 2025.
- ^ Feuz, Alex (March 19, 2026). "ESPN unveils more Major League Baseball game selections and dates for reimagined exclusive schedule". ESPN Press Room. Retrieved March 19, 2026.