Ratings: WNBA, UFC, Racing, Tennis

WNBA regular season games have averaged 317,000 viewers across ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 so far this season, up 31% from last year on ESPN2 alone (243K). The season has included five games on ABC or ESPN, the most at this point of the season since 2008.

In the final telecast before the All-Star break, ESPN2 drew 194,000 for Seattle-Las Vegas on Tuesday night — down 6% from New York-Minnesota in an earlier window last year (207K).

The fourth UFC on ESPN main event averaged a 0.6 rating and 957,000 viewers last Saturday night, up 88% in ratings and 95% in viewership from last year on FS1 (0.32, 492K), but down 50% and 53% respectively from 2017 on FOX (1.2, 2.05M). Versus the previous main event on ESPN, ratings fell a tick (from 0.7) and viewership 16% (from 1.15M).

Head-to-head, UFC on ESPN pulled the same rating as the competing Premier Boxing Champions event on FOX and a slightly larger audience (vs. 923K).

Last Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race from New Hampshire earned a 0.7 rating and 1.05 million viewers on NBCSN, flat in ratings and up 3% in viewership from last year (0.7, 1.02M), but down a tick and 10% respectively from 2017 (1.17M). It was the first Xfinity Series telecast all season to increase over last year.

In other racing action, the rain-delayed IndyCar Series race from Iowa had 156,000 viewers on NBCSN. The race did not start until after 11:50 PM ET. Rain-delay coverage had 259,000 earlier in the night.

World Team Tennis averaged a 0.31 rating and 409,000 viewers in its CBS debut last Sunday, marking the series’ largest audience on record. Despite the record audience, it was the weekend’s second-least watched sporting event on broadcast television. An eSports event on ABC averaged 304,000.