ESPN hit near season-lows for MLB coverage on Sunday and Monday. In other news, NASCAR Xfinity Series racing unsurprisingly sank on Fox Sports 2, and Spike TV earned its largest Bellator MMA audience ever Friday.
Near Season-Lows For MLB on ESPN
- The Giants/Dodgers Sunday Night Baseball game drew 1.4 million viewers on ESPN, down 2% from Angels/Braves last year (1.41M to 1.38M), down 5% from Giants/Braves in 2013 (1.5M), and the second-smallest Sunday night audience of the season. Keep in mind coverage aired opposite the final round of the U.S. Open on FOX, which averaged 8.7 million viewers in primetime. The following night, White Sox/Orioles drew 357,000 on Monday Night Baseball — the season’s third-smallest audience on the ESPN family of networks, regardless of day. (via ShowBuzz Daily, Sports TV Ratings)
Postponed to FS2, NASCAR Xfinity Race Hits Low Sunday
- NASCAR Xfinity Series racing from Chicago drew just 377,000 viewers on Fox Sports 2 Sunday afternoon, easily the series’ smallest audience of the season. The race was originally scheduled to air on FS1 Saturday night, but was postponed due to rain. (via Sports TV Ratings)
Spike Earns Top Bellator MMA Audience
- The Bellator 138 mixed martial arts telecast drew 1.6 million viewers on Spike TV Friday night, the largest audience ever for the series (dating back to 2008). Viewership peaked with 2.1 million for the quarter-hour encompassing the Kimbo Slice/Ken Shamrock main event, with the three-minute fight itself averaging a series-record 2.4 million. (mmafighting.com [1], [2])
