HBO hit a nine-year viewership high for Saturday’s fight between Canelo Alvarez and James Kirkland. In other news, Fox Sports 1 scored its second-largest regular season MLB audience, and rain hampered ESPN’s baseball numbers for a second straight night.
Nine-Year High For Canelo/Kirkland on HBO
- The Canelo Alvarez/James Kirkland boxing fight drew 2.1 million viewers on HBO Saturday night, the most-watched bout on HBO World Championship Boxing since Antonio Tarver/Bernard Hopkins in 2006 (2.5M). Alvarez’ knockout victory was preceded by a re-air of the Floyd Mayweather/Manny Pacquiao fight, which aired the previous week on pay-per-view. (press release via fightnetwork.com)
FS1 Earns Second-Best MLB Audience
- Saturday’s Royals/Tigers Major League Baseball game earned 715,000 viewers on Fox Sports 1, up 142% from Cardinals/Cubs last year (295K) and the second-largest audience ever for a regular season MLB telecast on the network. The top mark was set by Indians/Tigers two weeks earlier (817K). Later in the day, Braves/Nationals drew 460,000 viewers — down 29% from Tigers/Royals in a later timeslot last year (652K). (via ShowBuzz Daily)
Another Rain Delay Leads to Another Drop For MLB on ESPN
- The Braves/Reds Monday Night Baseball game, which was delayed nearly two hours due to rain, drew 621,000 viewers on ESPN — down 5% from Cardinals/Braves last year (650K) and down 37% from Braves/Reds in 2013 (988K). It was the second straight MLB game on ESPN to have a lengthy rain delay, with both declining from last year. (via ShowBuzz Daily)
