The Red Sox/Yankees rivalry still delivers for ESPN. In other news, Fox Sports 1 scored its top MLB audience of the season, and the LPGA Tour neared a 2016 high last weekend on CBS.
Red Sox/Yankees Still Driving ESPN
- Red Sox/Yankees drew a 1.4 final rating and 2.1 million viewers on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball last weekend, flat in ratings and up 3% in viewership from Yankees/Orioles in 2014. Last year’s Red Sox/Angels game was rained out. The game was ESPN’s third-most watched of the season, with three of the top five pitting the Red Sox against the Yankees. In other action, Mets/Cubs had 857,000 on ESPN Monday (+57%), 669,000 on Tuesday, and 411,000 for a day game on Wednesday. Also Wednesday, Red Sox/Orioles drew 729,000 — up a smidge from Orioles/Yankees last year (726K).
FS1 Hits MLB Season-High
- Fox Sports 1 earned 687,000 for Royals/Tigers last Saturday night, up 54% from Indians/Reds last year (444K) and the network’s most-watched MLB window of the season. The previous high was 663,000 for Nationals/Cubs in May. Red Sox/Yankees had 499,000 earlier in the day, up 9% from Dodgers/Nationals last year (460K) but down 9% from Cardinals/Brewers in 2014 (546K). Over on TBS, Sunday’s Rangers/Cubs game had 439,000 (+2%).
LPGA Nears 2016 High on CBS
- Final round coverage of the LPGA Tour Marathon Classic had a 0.7 final rating and 1.0 million viewers on CBS last Sunday, marking the second-highest rating and viewership for a women’s golf event this year. The final round of the U.S. Women’s Open had a 0.9 and 1.3 million the previous week on FOX.
(Numbers via Programming Insider; ShowBuzz Daily [1], [2], [3], [4], [5])
