The latest Crosstown Series did not just tilt the city’s baseball mood; it flipped the TV scoreboard. During the three-game set, the White Sox’s new television home, the Chicago Sports Network, pulled in larger local audiences than the Cubs’ Marquee Sports Network, giving CHSN a well-timed bragging right as the season grinds on.
Across the Friday-to-Sunday run, Chicago Sports Network’s three telecasts, simulcast on WCIU, averaged about 200,000 viewers, while Marquee Sports Network drew roughly 112,600 viewers in the Chicago market, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The Sun-Times, citing Nielsen data, reported that Friday’s opener pulled about 207,600 viewers to CHSN versus 125,400 for Marquee, Saturday’s game drew roughly 172,600 to 87,200, and Sunday’s finale climbed to about 219,700 against 125,300. CHSN’s postgame show with Chuck Garfien and Ozzie Guillen averaged around 97,500 viewers, holding about 62 percent of the Sunday game audience, the paper noted.
How The U’s Simulcasts Lifted CHSN
The ratings surge is closely tied to CHSN’s partnership with Weigel Broadcasting to simulcast 10 White Sox games on WCIU, a deal that put all three Crosstown games on free, over-the-air television as well as on CHSN’s cable and streaming outlets. As TVNewsCheck reported, the simulcast slate hits high-interest opponents, including the Cubs, along with the Dodgers and Yankees. In announcing the arrangement, CHSN president Mike McCarthy called it “another great opportunity to showcase the quality and creativity of CHSN’s game coverage to an even broader audience.”
A Distribution Fight With Real Fans
Access remains a sore spot in Chicago’s sports TV ecosystem. CHSN spent months off Comcast entirely and, when it finally landed, the channel was placed on a more expensive tier, a setup that has clearly shaped viewing habits and made WCIU simulcasts especially valuable. Axios reported that CHSN joined Comcast on channel 200 on the “Ultimate” tier, which tacks an extra monthly charge onto subscribers’ bills. In that context, dropping select Sox games onto a broadcast outlet that anyone with basic pay TV or a simple antenna can reach is an easy way to pump up local ratings.
What’s Next For Local Baseball TV
CHSN still has six WCIU simulcasts left this season, including games against the Dodgers on June 14 and the Yankees on July 29, plus another Cubs matchup at Wrigley Field on August 17, according to TVNewsCheck. The Sun-Times noted that the Crosstown weekend delivered the most-watched White Sox games locally since 2021, a notable benchmark for a still-growing regional network. The real test will be whether those new viewers stick around once the Sox return to cable-only and streaming windows.
On the North Side, Marquee has been busy trying to widen its own footprint, including returning to Hulu + Live TV, which helps keep the Cubs’ channel competitive despite this Crosstown setback. For now, the weekend’s numbers are a loud reminder that in Chicago sports, what truly drives TV dominance is not just who wins on the field, but who can actually get into living rooms.
