Preakness ratings down slightly.

Last weekend’s second week of the BIG3 averaged a 0.4 rating and 677,000 viewers on CBS, up a third in ratings and 23% in viewership from week two last year. Both weeks of the three-on-three basketball league have increased from a year ago despite World Cup competition (with the standard caveat regarding changes in Nielsen methodology).

Benefitting from a FIFA World Cup lead-in, last weekend’s NHRA Nationals from Norwalk (Ohio) averaged a 0.8 rating and 1.47 million viewers on FOX — the sixth-largest audience on record for an NHRA event. The telecast, which peaked with 2.7 million viewers, more-than-doubled last year’s Norwalk event. Read more

Last weekend’s Yankees-Red Sox Major League Baseball game on ABC averaged a 1.0 rating and 1.99 million viewers, comfortably surpassing the network’s previous MLB window last month (Giants-Cubs: 1.41M). Read more

CBS averaged a 1.0 rating and 1.57 million viewers for Sparks-Fever last Saturday night and a 0.9 and 1.53 million for Aces-Sky the following day, marking the fourth and fifth-largest audiences of the WNBA season, and the top two that did not feature Fever G Caitlin Clark. Read more

Last Friday’s opening round of the NHL Draft averaged 616,000 viewers on ESPN, up 15% from last year, and behind only the Connor Bedard draft of 2023 (681K) as the most-watched on record.

The season premiere of the BIG3 basketball league — including a Miami-Los Angeles game that was shortened after an altercation — averaged 560,000 viewers on CBS last weekend, on par with last year’s season average.

Last Thursday’s Dream-Fever WNBA regular season game averaged 816,000 viewers on Amazon Prime Video, the largest WNBA audience yet for the streamer, which is in its first season of carrying Nielsen-rated games. Read more