ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball ratings scored a huge increase opposite the NFL last weekend. Also: figures for the delayed Brickyard 400 and a large audience for Pro Bull Riding.
Big Jump For Astros-Sox
Astros-Red Sox scored a 0.95 rating and 1.48 million viewers on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball last weekend, up 53% in ratings and 51% in viewership from last year (Orioles-Indians: 0.6, 982K) and up 42% and 39% respectively from 2016 (Cubs-Astros: 0.7. 1.07M).
Boston’s walk-off win was the most-watched Sunday Night Baseball game opposite the NFL regular season since the end of the 2016 season (Cardinals-Cubs: 1.0, 1.57M).
Coverage of the same series the previous day had a 0.2 and 388,000 on FS1. There was no comparable window last year.
Shifting to the workweek, Wednesday’s Brewers-Cubs game had a 0.6 (+55%) rating and 899,000 (+61%) on ESPN.
Delayed Brickyard 400 Scores 1.2M
Monday’s NASCAR Cup Series Brickyard 400, which was postponed from Sunday due to rain, delivered 1.24 million viewers on NBCSN. Last year’s race, which ran as scheduled in July, had 5.63 million on the NBC broadcast network.
Earlier in the day, the delayed Xfinity Series race from the same track had 474,000.
Over Two Million For Post-NFL Bull Riding
Coverage of the Professional Bull Riders Tour earned a 1.3 rating and 2.04 million viewers on CBS following the network’s NFL coverage, up 18% in ratings and 11% in viewership from last year (1.1, 1.84M) and up a tick and 17% respectively from 2016 (1.2, 1.75M).
The telecast had a stronger-than-usual lead-in as CBS aired its most-watched Week 1 NFL singleheader since 1998.
Head-to-head, the PBR had the same rating as the competing men’s final of the US Open tennis tournament on ESPN and a larger audience in adults 18-49 (670K to 539K).
