Recent sports TV ratings news, including an esports record for NASCAR iRacing, an ESPN-high for Wrestlemania, plus figures for other replacement programming during the current sports drought.
NASCAR sets esports mark
Last week’s live eNASCAR iRacing event averaged a 0.53 rating and 903,000 viewers on FS1, marking the highest rated esports telecast on record. The virtual race was the most-watched sportscast of the weekend on cable, but ranked just ninth across all networks behind a slate of classic games and documentaries on broadcast.
Though a record for esports, last week’s numbers trailed the first three NASCAR Xfinity Series races on FS1 this season, each of which averaged more than one million viewers.
Wrestlemania gives ESPN its largest audience since suspensions
A rebroadcast of Wrestlemania 30 averaged 839,000 viewers on ESPN last Sunday, marking the network’s most-watched program since SportsCenter on March 11, the night the NBA suspended its season due to the coronavirus pandemic. The network averaged 725,000 for a re-air of UFC 244 the previous night, marking its second-largest audience since March 11.
As for ESPN8: The Ocho on ESPN2 last Sunday, the Professional Arm Wrestling Championships was the only program for which figures were publicly available. It averaged 220,000.
ABC 30 For 30 leads network sportscasts
A rebroadcast of the ESPN 30 For 30 documentary “Elway to Marino” averaged 1.42 million viewers on ABC last Saturday, ranking as the most-watched sportscast on any network since the majority of sporting events were called off on March 11-12. ABC also averaged a 0.7 rating and 1.12 million viewers for the 30 For 30 “The Two Bills” later in the day and a 0.7 and 1.03 million for “The ’85 Bears” the following day.
Elsewhere last weekend, encore coverage of the 2018 PGA Tour Tampa Bay Championship averaged a 0.8 rating and 1.10 million viewers on NBC last Saturday and a 0.8 and 1.25 million last Sunday. Tiger Woods finished a birdie putt away from a playoff in what would have been his first victory since 2013.
On CBS, a rebroadcast of the 2016 Villanova-North Carolina NCAA men’s basketball championship averaged a 0.7 and 1.10 million on Sunday. The network also averaged a 0.8 and 1.09 million for the 2008 Kansas-Memphis title game and a 0.7 and 1.09 million for last year’s Virginia-Texas Tech final.
The previous day, CBS topped out at a 0.7 and 937,000 for the 1982 North Carolina-Georgetown final, followed by a 0.6 and 888,000 for the 1992 Duke-Kentucky regional final and a 0.57 and 803,000 for the 1983 NC State-Houston final.
[Numbers from Fox Sports, ShowBuzz Daily 3.24 a, b, Michael Mulvihll/Twitter 3.24]
