Nine Innings to Love: The Cubs’ TikTok Rom-Com Explained (2026)

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Nine Innings to Love is a 17-episode romantic comedy that the Chicago Cubs made for TikTok, set entirely inside Wrigley Field during one game. The Cubs’ own account released it on September 4, 2026, after posting a trailer on August 31. It is a baseball team making scripted fiction for a vertical feed, and it is aimed squarely at BookTok.

This guide covers what Nine Innings to Love is, who made it, why the team went after romance readers and what a Forbes analysis published October 9 says about it. Every fact below comes from the outlets named or from the Cubs’ own TikTok post.

What to know:

• The series: 17 short episodes told across nine innings of one Cubs game, per Variety.
• Where: only on the Cubs’ TikTok account, per the Chicago Sun-Times.
• The leads: Ava (Veronica Garrubbo), an aspiring romance writer in a slump, and David (Sid Kutikkad), a love-shy seatmate.
• The target: the Cubs say it is “built for Gen Z and millennial audiences” and blends baseball with BookTok fandom.

What Nine Innings to Love Is

Variety describes Nine Innings to Love as a scripted rom-com told across nine innings of baseball, in 17 short-form, social-first episodes. The official synopsis follows Ava and David over the course of one Cubs game. After an accidental bleacher meet-cute leaves them stuck together, Ava promises David that before the final out she will help him find a summer fling inside Wrigley Field.

The story turns the ballpark into what the synopsis calls “a rom-com training ground, complete with swings and misses, a makeover, a returning ex and a ninth-inning chase.” Ava then starts to realize that “the story she has been trying to write may be happening right in front of her.”

The Cubs announced the series with a trailer on their TikTok account on August 31, 2026. The caption reads: “For those who believe in a good love story. Nine Innings to Love: A 17-part vertical series, coming to your FYP this Friday.”

@cubs

For those who believe in a good love story. Nine Innings to Love: A 17-part vertical series, coming to your FYP this Friday. #booktok #romance #verticals #chicago #9ITL

♬ original sound – Cubs

Credit: @cubs/TikTok.

Who Is Behind Nine Innings to Love

According to Variety, the series was created and written by Cubs Productions, the team’s in-house creative arm, with production services from Chicago’s Coyote Sun Productions. It is directed by Adam Sobel, whom the team identifies as its director of content and production. The cast also includes Angelina Dávila, Kevin Kantor, Shelby Brown and Cole Steeves.

Sobel said in a press release: “The inspiration for ‘Nine Innings to Love’ came from a simple truth about the Wrigley Field Budweiser Bleachers: with general admission seating, you never know who might end up beside you. That felt like the perfect starting point for a love story.”

Why the Cubs Aimed at BookTok

The team was open about the audience. Jen Martindale, the Cubs’ executive vice president of marketing and communications, said in a press release: “‘Nine Innings to Love’ celebrates the magic of a summertime Cubs game through a bite-sized episodic format that’s built for Gen Z and millennial audiences. By blending a game of baseball with BookTok fandom and the vibes of a classic rom-com, we’ve created a story that could only unfold in the Budweiser Bleachers at Wrigley Field.”

The trailer caption points the same way, tagging the post #booktok and #romance. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the team hopes the series converts young people into baseball fans, and that the idea was inspired by what the Cubs call a “very real phenomenon” of fans finding love in the ballpark’s bleachers.

What Analysts Say About the Cubs’ TikTok Rom-Com

A Forbes analysis published October 9, republished by Yahoo Sports, treats Nine Innings to Love as a test of how far a sports brand can reach. It calls the series a vertical drama made for social feeds, “where audience reach counts for more than direct revenue.”

Forbes cites research from the UK analytics firm Digital i that women aged 45 to 54 accounted for more than double their 7.7% share of overall YouTube streams when it came to streams of five leading microdrama apps’ YouTube channels in 2025. It adds that those figures “do not establish who watched the Cubs’ series.”

The analysis also draws a line between reaching an audience and controlling it. The Cubs produce the series themselves, Forbes notes, but the platform controls distribution. For more on how a league is working the same platform, see this site’s coverage of the TikTok NFL partnership renewal.

Production Credits for Nine Innings to Love

• Created and written by: Cubs Productions, the team’s in-house creative arm.
• Production services: Coyote Sun Productions, Chicago.
• Director: Adam Sobel, the Cubs’ director of content and production.
• Cast: Veronica Garrubbo (Ava), Sid Kutikkad (David), Angelina Dávila, Kevin Kantor, Shelby Brown and Cole Steeves, per Variety.
• Format: 17 short-form episodes, told across nine innings of one game.

Why the Bleachers Are the Setting

The setting is a real feature of Wrigley Field. Sobel’s explanation is that general admission seating means “you never know who might end up beside you,” which made the Budweiser Bleachers the natural place for a meet-cute. The Sun-Times reports the team describes the idea as inspired by the “very real phenomenon” of fans finding love in the ballpark’s bleachers.

That grounding is what separates it from a generic romance. The leads are written as bleacher fans, characters the director says are “relatable to bleacher fans who come to the ballpark both for the game and for the possibility of what might happen off the field.”

A Short Timeline

• August 31, 2026: the Cubs announce Nine Innings to Love and post the trailer on their TikTok account on a Monday morning, per the Chicago Sun-Times and the post’s own date.
• September 4, 2026: the 17-episode series is released, only on TikTok, per the Sun-Times and Forbes.
• October 9, 2026: Forbes publishes its analysis of the series as a test of how far a sports brand can reach.

What a Microdrama Is

Forbes places the Cubs’ series in the microdrama format: vertical drama with short episodes produced for social feeds. It is the same shape as the “bite-sized” label the Cubs used for their own series. The analysis argues that for this format, “audience reach counts for more than direct revenue.”

That is the reasoning behind a baseball team spending a production budget on fiction nobody pays to watch. The return, as the Cubs frame it, is reaching people who do not come for the game, such as readers who follow romance on BookTok.

Other Sports Teams Making Entertainment

The Forbes piece does not treat the Cubs as an isolated case. It sets Nine Innings to Love next to two other moves, both attributed to Forbes here.

• Foolish Club Studios: a studio established by the Kansas City Chiefs’ leadership, which United Talent Agency signed for representation across film, television and media rights about three weeks after the Cubs’ premiere.
• Skydance Sports: a joint venture with the NFL and NFL Films since 2022, executive producer of Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story, the third Hallmark film built around an NFL team, premiering October 17.

Forbes also compares the Cubs’ approach with TikTok’s World Cup creator program, in which thirty creators covered supporters, stadium culture and the tournament experience without filming live play. The difference, Forbes notes, is that the Cubs produce Nine Innings to Love themselves and publish it through their own account.

What Is Not Known

• Viewership: none of the sources read for this guide gives a verified view count for the series, and none is claimed here.
• Who watched: Forbes says outright that its demographic figures do not show who watched the Cubs’ series.
• Results: the Cubs have not, in the sources read, said whether the series moved ticket sales or fandom.
• A second season: no source mentions one.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Nine Innings to Love?

Nine Innings to Love is a 17-episode scripted romantic comedy from the Chicago Cubs, released on the team’s TikTok account on September 4, 2026 and set during one game at Wrigley Field.

Who stars in Nine Innings to Love?

Veronica Garrubbo plays Ava and Sid Kutikkad plays David. The cast also includes Angelina Dávila, Kevin Kantor, Shelby Brown and Cole Steeves, per Variety.

Where can you watch Nine Innings to Love?

On the Cubs’ official TikTok account, @cubs. The Chicago Sun-Times reported it was released only on TikTok.

Who made Nine Innings to Love?

Cubs Productions, the team’s in-house creative arm, created and wrote it, with production services from Coyote Sun Productions, and Adam Sobel directed it.

Sources: Variety, Chicago Sun-Times, Forbes via Yahoo Sports, and the Cubs’ TikTok post.