Overnight ratings hit a low for the PGA’s new stop in Mexico City. In other news, it was a mixed weekend for college basketball on CBS, and the Major League Soccer season opened on a lower note.
Overnights Down For PGA’s Mexico Debut
- Final round coverage of the PGA Tour-WGC Mexico Championship pulled a 2.4 overnight rating on NBC Sunday afternoon, down 20% from last year (3.0) and down 8% from 2015 (2.6), when the tournament took place at its previous site Doral. The 2.4 is tied as the lowest for final round coverage of the tournament since 2010 (2.1). Third round action on Saturday had a 1.9 overnight, down a tick from last year (2.0) but up 12% from 2015 (1.7).
College Hoops Up Saturday, Down Sunday, on CBS
- Notre Dame-Louisville was the top college basketball game on CBS over the weekend with a 1.2 overnight rating, up a tick from LSU-Kentucky in the same window last year (1.1) but down a third from Florida-Kentucky in 2015 (1.8). Bookending the matchup, Kentucky-Texas A&M had a 1.1 (+57%) and Arizona-Arizona State a 1.0 (+43%). On Sunday, Purdue-Northwestern led the way with a 1.1 overnight — down 15% from Maryland-Indiana last year (1.3) and down 21% from Wisconsin-Ohio State in ’15 (1.4). Earlier in the day, Cincinnati-Connecticut had a 0.9 (-10%) and Wichita State-Illinois State also had a 0.9 (+13%).
MLS Opens Season on Down Note
- The Timbers-Minnesota United Major League Soccer opener scored 213,000 viewers on Fox Sports 1 Friday night, down 41% from last year’s Fire-Crew opener on ESPN, which aired on a Sunday afternoon (362K), and down 38% from the 2015 Galaxy-Fire opener on UniMas (341K). Compared to the first match on FS1 last season, Sounders-Sporting K.C. on a Sunday night, viewership fell 20% from 267K.
