Tom Brady‘s Buccaneers debut hit a four-year high in the overnight ratings. Also: tough times continued for the NHL and US Open Friday night.
Brady’s Bucs debut hits four-year high in overnight ratings
The Week 1 NFL national window (Buccaneers-Saints in 91% of markets) averaged a 16.2 overnight rating on FOX, up 2% from last year (mostly Giants-Cowboys: 15.9), up 3% from 2018 (mostly Cowboys-Panthers: 15.7) and the highest Week 1 NFL overnight since the same window in 2016 (mostly Giants-Cowboys: 16.9).
The 16.2 is tied as the fifth-highest for the NFL national window — in any week of the season — since 2016.
As overnights are rarely reported anymore, comparable figures for Sunday’s other windows were not available.
Slow start continues for NHL conference finals
Friday’s Lightning-Islanders NHL Eastern Conference Final Game 3 averaged 986,000 viewers on USA Network, down 48% from Bruins-Hurricanes last year (1.90M) and down 32% from Lightning-Capitals in 2018 (1.45M), both of which aired on NBCSN. Viewership declined 14% from Game 2 last Wednesday night, which also aired on NBCSN (1.14M).
Despite the steep drop, New York’s win was the most-watched Stanley Cup playoff game on a network other than NBC or NBCSN since 2014 — Game 6 of a Blackhawks-Wild semifinal on CNBC (1.82M). Keep in mind it was the first conference final game on an ‘overflow’ network since NBC acquired rights.
Notably, Game 3 dominated the event that bumped it from NBCSN — NASCAR Xfinity Series racing at Richmond (579K).
US Open men’s semis down big opposite competition
The men’s semifinals of the US Open averaged just 890,000 viewers on ESPN Friday, down 39% from last year (1.47M), down 27% from 2018 (1.22M) and the smallest audience since ESPN acquired full rights to the event in 2015. The telecast faced unusual competition from the NBA and NHL playoffs and lacked the usual stable of stars.
[Nielsen estimates from Fox Sports PR, ShowBuzz Daily 9.14]
