TV Ratings: UFC Earns Just 1.7 Overnight on FOX (Also: MLB on FOX, NASCAR Nationwide Series)

Sprint Cup: Talladega Up Slightly From Last Year, Third-Lowest on FOX

Jon Lewis

Jon Lewis has been covering the sports media industry on a daily basis since 2006 as the founder and main writer of Sports Media Watch. You can contact him here or on the social media websites X (Twitter) or Bluesky.

Alex Pereira, left, fights Ciryl Gane during their interim heavyweight title bout at UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House, Monday, June 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

UFC sees larger audience for White House event

by Jon Lewis

3 days ago

One of the more attention-grabbing sporting events in recent years attracted a larger-than-usual audience to UFC.

San Francisco Giants' Jung Hoo Lee, of South Korea, runs after hitting a one-run single during the first inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs in Chicago, Sunday, June 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

“Sunday Night Baseball” scores MLB’s top audience since Opening Week

by Jon Lewis

2 weeks ago

As "Sunday Night Baseball" starts to settle into a routine on NBC, the viewers may be following suit.

St. Louis Cardinals' Alec Burleson hits an RBI single during the third inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs Sunday, May 31, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Scott Kane)

NBC opens weekly “Sunday Night Baseball” slate with better matchup, bigger audience

by Jon Lewis

3 weeks ago

NBC's "Sunday Night Baseball" schedule began in earnest last weekend with a better matchup and larger audience than in...

News: Fox Sports, Charlie Neal, NBA Draft Lottery and more

by Derek Futterman

1 month ago

The Fox MLB studio team will call a Red Sox-Yankees game; Charlie Neal passes away at the age of...

Comments 4

Joe says:

14 years ago

The interesting thing is everyone talks about how popular MLB is getting and the NHL is really not that far behind. Here are a few examples.

1) NHL Stanley Cup gets about the same rating as the League Championships for MLB at about 5 to 6 million people. Granted the NHL finals are mostly on NBC vs TBS but TBS is is 100 million homes compared to 115 for NBC. NBCSN is still in only about 79.3 million homes so it is hard to know what the ratings would actually be with a larger distribution. In each of the last three years the NHL Stanley Cup has had one game with over 8 million viewers.

2) regular season: MLB 2.7 viewers on Fox (1.8 rating). NHL 1.6 million on NBC (1.0 rating).
A couple of big differences. Fox as at least 3 regional games at one time and sometimes more so you have atleast 6 markets to the NHL’s 2 markets. The extra 4 markets of more would bring the NHL close to 2 million viewers and certainly atleast 2/3’s the viewership of the popluar MLB. In the 90’s the NHL had higher ratings on Fox then MLB has now when they had regional games as two years had a 2.1 rating and a 2.0 rating. Fox MLB was 1.8 last year. The Winter Classis is averaged in those rating numbers but so are prime time games on Fox for MLB.

I am not trying to argue that the NHL is as popular as MLB. What I am saying is the NHL is much closer that you would think and the mainstream media would have you believe. FYI NHL playoffs are way up over last year as NBC is averaging 2.5 million viewers on weekend games.
Jason Clinkscales says:

14 years ago

To be fair, this past Saturday – as all first Saturdays in May – was the most packed-day on the sports calendar.
Mike says:

14 years ago

Why are the baseball ratings so low? It seems MLB ratings are much lower than NBA ratings is that the case because most fans only care about watching the Yankees and Red Sox?
- Paulsen says:
  
  14 years ago
  
  MLB ratings have been lower than NBA ratings for about five years now in the regular season (and, of course, the NBA Finals has topped the World Series in three of the past four years). These things are cyclical, however, and MLB will probably be back on top of the NBA by the end of the decade.