Ratings: U.S. Open, EPL, MLB and more

Thursday’s opening round of the U.S. Open averaged 841,000 viewers on Golf Channel, down 39% from last year on FS1 (1.38M). This year’s 7:30 AM ET start time was five hours earlier than than last year, when the tournament took place on the West Coast. Viewership also declined 20% from 2018, the last time the tournament was held on the East Coast (1.06M), though that telecast had a more reasonable 9:30 AM start.

Numbers for NBC’s three-hour window were not immediately available. Viewing on Peacock, which aired two hours of coverage, is not measured by Nielsen.

In other major golf action, the final round of last weekend’s LPGA Tour ANA Inspiration averaged a 0.29 rating and 449,000 viewers on Golf Channel — the largest audience for hte tournament in three years (2017: 551K) and up 131% in viewership from last year, when it overlapped with the Augusta National Women’s Amateur (194K).

Last Saturday’s Leeds-Liverpool English Premier League match averaged a 0.7 rating and 1.26 million viewers on NBC, marking the largest EPL opening weekend audience ever on U.S. television. The previous high was 1.0 million for Chelsea-Swansea in 2015. Including streaming and the Spanish-language audience on Telemundo, the match averaged 1.53 million.

No other opening weekend match cracked the 400,000 mark; Southampton-Crystal Palace ranked a distant second with a 0.24 and 387,000 on NBCSN earlier Saturday.

Regional Major League Baseball on FOX (Astros-Dodgers or Indians-Twins) averaged a 0.9 rating and 1.64 million viewers last Saturday night, the network’s third-smallest primetime MLB audience in the past four years. The bottom three have come this season. The telecast still delivered MLB’s largest audience in nearly a month — since the previous primetime FOX window on August 15 (Red Sox-Yankees or A’s-Giants: 1.80M).

In other action, Astros-Dodgers averaged a 0.49 and 896,000 on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball, down 40% in ratings and 31% in viewership from the comparable week of last season (5/19/19 Cubs-Nationals: 0.8, 1.31M) and down 30% and 17% from last year’s equivalent date (9/15/19 Dodgers-Mets: 0.7, 1.08M).

ESPN also averaged 502,000 for Mets-Phillies, 324,000 for Dodgers-Padres and 317,000 for Diamondbacks-Angels on Wednesday. TBS averaged a 0.15 and 233,000 for Cubs-Brewers last Sunday, which featured a no-hitter.

According to Sports Business Daily, HBO’s “Hard Knocks” averaged 243,000 viewers this season, down 63% from last year (649K). … Boosted by a CBS NFL lead-in, the Pro Bull Riders Tour (0.9, 1.55M) was last Sunday’s top non-NFL sportscast on a day that included the US Open men’s final (1.48M) and NBA and NHL playoffs. … Last weekend’s IndyCar Mid-Ohio doubleheader drew a 0.38 and 624,000 on NBCSN Saturday and a 0.44 and 635,000 on NBC Sunday, both trailing last year’s lone race there, which did not face football competition (0.47, 670K). … Last Sunday’s F1 Tuscany Grand Prix scored a 0.38 and 627,000 on ESPN2, up from the previous week’s Italian GP (0.35, 602K). … Last Sunday’s Storm-Aces WNBA regular season finale (0.25, 333K) was the league’s least-watched game on ABC since at least 2011. Previous games did not face the NFL. Shifting to the playoffs, ESPN2 averaged 116,000 for Mystics-Mercury and 99,000 for Sun-Sky opposite the NBA Playoffs Tuesday — down 48% and 60% respectively from last year (Mercury-Sky: 247K; Lynx-Storm: 221K).