Tiger Woods‘ return to the field did not have the expected impact on TNT’s PGA Championship audience Thursday. In other news, NASCAR Xfinity Series ratings benefited from a move to broadcast television, and ESPN scored an increase for MLB on Wednesday.
PGA Championship Ratings: First Round Down on TNT
Opening round coverage of the PGA Championship earned 979,000 viewers on TNT Thursday afternoon, down 8% from last year (1.06M) and up a fraction of a percent from 2016 (977K). The telecast ranks ahead of only last year as the least-watched first round of the tournament since at least 2012.
The decline is the first of the season for any major round. Tiger Woods’ presence has keyed a resurgent year for the PGA Tour, but he was largely done with his opening round by the time TNT came on the air at 2 PM ET.
Move to NBC Boosts Xfinity Series
NASCAR Xfinity Series racing from Watkins Glen earned a 1.1 rating and 1.67 million viewers on NBC last Saturday, up 38% in ratings and 39% in viewership from last year (0.8, 1.2M) and up 57% and 64% respectively from 2016 (0.7, 1.0M), both of which aired on NBCSN. It was the most-watched Xfinity Series race since Talladega on FOX in April (1.89M).
In other racing action, NHRA eliminations from Seattle had a 0.47 (-15%) and 690,000 (-22%) on FOX Sunday afternoon.
Braves-Nats Up on ESPN
Braves-Nationals scored a 0.31 rating and 463,000 viewers on ESPN’s Wednesday Night Baseball this week, up 8% in viewership from last year (Red Sox-Rays: 430K) but down 22% from 2016 (Red Sox-Yankees: 596K). Excluding late night windows, it was the network’s fifth-least watched MLB game this season.
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 8.7, 8.10, Programming Insider 8.9]
