The Toronto Blue Jays put together one of the best World Series in baseball history in 2025, going to extra innings in Game 7 before falling to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In 2026, probably in part thanks to that, the Blue Jays will get to partake in a tradition they haven't had in multiple decades.
NBC, the new carrier of Sunday Night Baseball (on Peacock), announced that the Blue Jays will play on Sunday, Sept. 7 against the Kansas City Royals at 7 p.m. ET.
Toronto hasn't had a Sunday Night Baseball game in at least 20 years.
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There's a 2015 report from Awful Announcing that indicated it had been more than a decade since the Blue Jays' last SNB appearance. And they haven't played on it since.
That's a lot of Sunday nights that didn't feature the Blue Jays. And yeah, there have been a lot of Yankees-Red Sox matchups in that time.
It'll be a cool spotlight for the Blue Jays. And against the Royals? They aren't exactly Sunday night regulars, either.
ESPN, the previous carrier of Sunday Night Baseball, wasn't making a totally illogical decision to not televise the Blue Jays. They had the U.S. Rights to the broadcasts. They weren't broadcasting into Canada, so one whole fanbase watching the game would be doing so on their own domestic channel. That means ESPN would likely get lower ratings for any game featuring Toronto.
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It's still an astounding gap, though. It's almost like they got caught in the pattern and said hey, we might as well just keep it going.
NBC is changing it up, though, and the Blue Jays will get the primetime spotlight. They'll just have to hope this season is as good as last one, so by the time that first Sunday in September rolls around, they're still compelling viewing.
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