The Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix earned its largest audience yet since moving to NBC. In other news, MLB on FOX eked out a narrow increase in viewership over the weekend, and a heavy slate of MLB games mostly declined on ESPN.
F1 Monaco GP Sets NBC Mark
- The Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix earned 1.4 million viewers on NBC Sunday morning, up 9% from last year (1.3M) and the most-watched F1 race ever on the NBC family of networks (dates back to 2013). It exceeded the previous high set by the same Monaco race four years ago (1.44M to 1.41M). According to NBC, it was the most-watched live F1 race ever on U.S. television, though that was based on fast-nationals that were 5% higher than the final viewership total. The race had a 1.0 rating, up a tick from last year and 2015 (0.9).
MLB on FOX Posts Slight Bump
- Regional Major League Baseball action featuring Cubs-Dodgers in 64% of markets earned a 1.4 final rating and 2.262 million viewers on FOX Saturday night, flat in ratings and up a hair in viewership from last year (1.4, 2.257M) and up 27% and 29% respectively from 2015 (1.1, 1.8M). Fox Sports 1 had a 0.3 and 475,000 for Royals-Indians earlier in the day; there was no comparable window last year.
Recent MLB Mostly Down on ESPN
- Mets-Pirates had a 0.8 final rating and 1.2 million viewers on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball last weekend, down 25% in ratings and 26% in viewership from Dodgers-Mets last year (1.05, 1.7M) and down 39% and 38% respectively from Tigers-Angels in 2015 (1.3, 2.0M). It was the second-straight SNB decline after five of the previous seven increased. In other action, Tigers-Royals topped ESPN’s Memorial Day lineup with 844,000 viewers, followed by Yankees-Orioles (841K, +4%) and Nationals-Giants (787K, -10%). Another Nationals-Giants game had 427,000 Tuesday night, while Dodgers-Cardinals scored 539,000 Tuesday (-48%) and 427,000 Wednesday (-33%). Last year’s comparable games pit L.A. against the Cubs.
