Entertainment

Wild card works on TV first time out

Major League Baseball’s first-ever wildcard round was a big hit on TV.

The two games on Friday averaged 4.6 million total viewers.

Baseball instituted a new one-game round this season in both leagues to determine the fourth team in the division playoff series.

In years past, the wild card was determined strictly by the best record.

The idea was to inject more uncertainty into the season’s final days — and it appears it worked well this season.

The first win-or-go-home wild card series — featuring St. Louis Cardinals/Atlanta Braves and the Baltimore Orioles/Texas Rangers — had about 10 percent more viewers than the first day of division playoffs that started on Saturday. It was also up over the first day of playoffs last year, according to early reports.