Fox NFL Sunday and ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown opened the season with multi-year highs; overnights increased for the US Open singles finals; the Brickyard 400 suffered in its first head-to-head with the NFL.
Fox NFL Sunday ties best start since 2003
The season premiere of Fox NFL Sunday averaged a 4.0 overnight rating, up 11% from last year (3.6) and tied as the highest in Week 1 of the season since 2003. The FOX pregame show topped the competing NFL Today on CBS by 56% (2.6, -7%).
In other pregame action, ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown averaged a 1.3 overnight, tied as its highest in any week of the season since 2016.
Overnights up for Open singles finals
Saturday’s Bianca Andreescu-Serena Williams US Open women’s final averaged a 3.0 overnight rating on ESPN, up 20% from Naomi Osaka-Williams last year (2.5), up 58% from Sloane Stephens-Madison Keys two years ago (1.9), and the highest since Williams-Caroline Wozniacki on CBS in 2014 (4.0).
The 3.0 is the highest for any individual tennis match since Williams played her sister Venus Williams in a 2015 US Open quarterfinal (4.8). The complete telecast averaged a 2.7.
Sunday’s Rafael Nadal-Daniil Medvedev men’s final averaged a 2.0 (+33%), the highest since Novak Djokovic-Roger Federer in 2015 (2.4).
Brickyard hits bricks opposite NFL
The NASCAR Cup Series Brickyard 400 averaged a 1.9 overnight rating on the NBC broadcast network Sunday afternoon, down 42% from 2017, when it still took place in late July (3.3), and almost certainly the lowest ever for the race. This year marked the first time that the Brickyard 400 has aired opposite NFL games, and the first time that any Cup Series race has aired on the opening Sunday of the NFL season since 2008.
Last year’s race was supposed to face NFL competition, but was postponed to Monday due to rain.
[Nielsen estimates via Fox Sports, ESPN PR, ESPN PR/Twitter 9.9, Sports Business Journal‘s Adam Stern/Twitter 9.9]
