Usain Bolt‘s final 100m did not move the needle much. In other news, ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball could not overcome the presence of the Mets, and FS1 posted one of its top audiences of the season for Cardinals-Royals.
Bolt Farewell Not As Big As One Would Expect
- Coverage of the World Track & Field Championships featuring Usain Bolt in his final men’s 100m earned a 0.9 final rating and 1.2 million viewers on NBC Saturday, flat in ratings and down 5% in viewership from the comparable day of the 2015 event — which also featured Bolt in the men’s 100m but aired on a Sunday (0.9, 1.3M). Viewership was actually higher the following day, with NBC’s coverage attracting 1.3 million.
With Mets on Schedule, SNB Slips
- Dodgers-Mets earned a 1.0 final rating and 1.6 million viewers on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball last weekend, down a tick in ratings and 10% in viewership from Dodgers-Pirates in 2015 (1.1, 1.8M). There was no comparable game last year due to ESPN’s scheduled coverage of the NFL Hall of Fame Game. On Monday, Cubs-Giants posted a 0.6 and 860,000 — the second-largest audience for a late night game this season, behind only the Cubs’ rain-delayed home opener in April (1.8M).
Cards-Royals Among FS1’s Top Games of Season
- Fox Sports 1 earned 620,000 viewers for Cardinals-Royals on Tuesday night, the network’s fifth-largest audience of the season, and the largest with Yankees and Red Sox games excluded. Three of the top five games on FS1 this season have aired on weeknights. In other action, FS1 scored 361,000 for Dodgers-Mets on Saturday — up 14% from Red Sox-Dodgers opposite the Olympics last year (316K) — and a season-low 171,000 for Twins-Padres back on August 1. Elsewhere on the dial, Nationals-Cubs pulled 462,000 viewers on TBS Sunday (+57%) and 398,000 on MLB Network Saturday.
[Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 8.8, Programming Insider 8.8, Nielsen]
