In the end, everything worked out nicely for the YES Network in regards to the network’s coverage of Aaron Judge’s pursuit of his 62nd home run. On Tuesday night, the slugger sent one over the left field fence in the first inning and it was captured by the Yankees’ broadcast team and network.
“I’m very satisfied. I’m glad it didn’t happen on Apple, I’m glad it didn’t happen on Fox. I’m glad the entire country was watching us,” said Troy Benjamin, the Yankees game producer for YES. “Everything you see documented? YES Network did it. So damn right. I’m satisfied as hell.”
He and the network should be satisfied because Tuesday’s coverage netted big numbers for YES. The game averaged 636,000 total viewers, which is a strong indicator of a huge night considering Judge was removed from the game in the second inning and will not play the team’s season finale. The network saw a peak of 933,000 viewers in the New York DMA from 8:15-8:30p ET, the immediate quarter hour following Judge’s historic hit.
“Nobody covers the Yankees like we do. It was definitely poetic justice,” Benjamin said. “We set up for this. We’ve had everything in place for the Judge moment. No one else could have captured it like we did.”
