Overnight ratings sank for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game; a steep drop on FS1 sank viewership for the MLS All-Star Game; the Senior British Open sank from last year’s high.
Hall of Fame Game overnights down
Thursday’s Broncos-Falcons Pro Football Hall of Fame Game averaged a 4.1 overnight rating on NBC, down 13% from last year (Ravens-Bears: 4.7) and down 24% from Cowboys-Cardinals in 2017 (5.4). The 4.1 is the lowest for the game since it last aired on cable in 2012.
Denver led all markets for the game with an 18.9 rating. The market also delivered a 36 share, meaning that more than a third of TVs in use were tuned to preseason football. After ranking dead last among markets for the Super Bowl, New Orleans ranked second for the Hall of Fame Game with a 10.5 rating — still down 11% from last year (11.8).
Albuquerque, N.M., ranked third at a 9.5. Birmingham (7.3) and Kansas City (6.8) rounded out the top five. Atlanta was seventh at a 6.4.
MLS All-Star Game down, despite Spanish-language bump
The MLS All-Star Game averaged 808,000 viewers across UniMas, Univision Deportes Network and FS1, down 15% from last year on UniMas/UDN and ESPN (947K), and down 58% from 2017 on Univision/UDN and FS1 (1.90M). The combined audience was the smallest for the game since 2013 (616K).
Though down overall, viewership increased on UniMas and UDN, which averaged 626,000 (+26%). It was the third-most watched MLS All-Star Game on the Univision family of networks, behind only 2017 (1.48M) and 2011 (665K).
FS1 chipped in just 182,000 viewers for its coverage, down 60% from last year (452K), down 57% from 2017 (420K), and the smallest audience for the game on any network in at least a decade.
Despite the decline, Wednesday’s match topped the recent WNBA All-Star Game on ABC (508K). Keep in mind the game was delayed nearly 45 minutes due to inclement weather.
Senior British Open down from last year’s high
Final round coverage of the Senior British Open averaged a 0.5 rating and 691,000 viewers on NBC last Sunday, down 40% in ratings and 44% in viewership from last year (0.8, 1.24M) — which was the most-watched round of the tournament since 2009 — and down 28% in both measures from 2017 (0.7, 964K).
It was the least-watched final round of the tournament since 2016, the last time the final round aired on Golf Channel (602K).
[Numbers from NBC, Univision, Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 7.30, 8.1]
