Thursday Night Football ratings were middling in Week 3; FOX scored the largest September MLB audience in five years; the WNBA semifinals are off to a soft start.
Week 3 Thursday Night Football ratings middling
Titans-Jaguars averaged a 3.8 rating and 6.32 million viewers on the Week 3 edition of NFL Network Thursday Night Football, down 27% in both measures from Jets-Browns last year (5.2, 8.63M), and down 14% and 15% respectively from 2017 (Rams-49ers: 4.4, 7.45M).
The Jaguars’ win posted the steepest decline of any NFL telecast this season, and tied the lowest Thursday Night Football rating since 2016.
TNF averaged a 2.15 rating in adults 18-49 (-29%) and a 1.5 in adults 18-34 (-32%).
MLB scores largest September audience since 2014
FOX averaged a 1.7 rating and 2.59 million viewers for regional Major League Baseball Thursday night (mostly Cardinals-Cubs), the largest September MLB audience on any network in five years — since the 2014 A’s-Royals Wild Card game on TBS (5.21M).
The telecast ranks third for the season in ratings and viewership, behind a pair of June windows on FOX: Yankees-Red Sox from London (1.9, 2.86M) and regional coverage featuring Astros-Yankees (1.8, 2.91M).
Versus the comparable week of last season, ratings increased 113% (from 0.8) and viewership 114% (from 1.21M) from a Saturday afternoon window on FOX.
Softer start to WNBA semifinals
Thursday’s Game 2 of the Aces-Mystics WNBA semifinal averaged 227,000 viewers on ESPN2, down 37% from Mystics-Dream last year, which did not face NFL competition (359K), and down 7% from Mystics-Lynx in 2017 (244K).
Game 1 had 293,000 on Tuesday; Games 1 and 2 of the other semifinal, Sparks-Sun, averaged 214,000 and 178,000 respectively. There were no games in the comparable windows last year.
By comparison, three of last year’s first four semifinal games topped 300,000 viewers (figures for the fourth game were not available). Those games aired in more favorable timeslots.
[Nielsen estimates from Programming Insider 9.21, ShowBuzz Daily 9.21]
