The first Women’s NCAA Tournament game on ABC hit a viewership high. Plus: a rare low for the PGA Tour, a quiet Saturday for combat sports, and more.
Women’s NCAA Tournament sees high in ABC debut
Last Sunday’s Tennessee-Middle Tennessee first round Women’s NCAA Tournament game averaged a 0.38 rating and 633,000 viewers on ABC, marking the tournament’s largest opening round audience since 2010. It was the first Women’s NCAA Tournament game on broadcast television since 1995.
Airing immediately afterward, ABC drew a 0.37 and 582,000 for Baylor-Jackson State. Neither game ranks as the most-watched of the tournament-to-date. Tuesday’s UConn-Syracuse second round game holds that distinction with 804,000 viewers on ESPN.
This year’s Women’s NCAA Tournament is the first in which every game is being carried nationally, as opposed to the regionalized windows that were previously the norm. As a result, there is no apples-to-apples comparison to 2019.
PGA Tour sees rare low at Honda Classic
Final round coverage of the PGA Tour Honda Classic averaged a 1.3 rating and 2.03 million viewers on NBC last Sunday, marking the tournament’s lowest Sunday rating since at least 1996. Ratings fell 24% and viewership 19% from last year (1.7, 2.51M). Third round coverage was also down, falling 17% and 12% respectively to a 1.0 and 1.54 million.
The declines and multi-year lows mark a sharp departure from the norm this season. Ten of the previous 12 windows on broadcast had posted an increase over the previous year.
Quiet Saturday/night at the fights
Last Saturday’s NCAA wrestling final averaged a 0.30 rating and 571,000 viewers on ESPN, the smallest audience for the event in nine years (2012: 554K). Ratings fell 23% and viewership 9% from the last time the event took place in 2019 (0.39, 625K). Semifinal coverage last Friday was a mixed bag, with ratings down 12% (to 0.23) and viewership up 7% (to 436K).
Airing immediately afterward, ESPN’s latest UFC main event averaged a 0.39 rating and 721,000 viewers — up from the network’s previous main event in January, which aired on a Wednesday afternoon and faced the presidential inauguration (0.15, 244K), but down from its previous primetime main event last November (0.6, 1.06M).
Earlier in the day, Top Rank Boxing had just a 0.14 and 233,000 — the series’ smallest audience since it returned from hiatus last June.
Plus: U-23 Mexico-USMNT, NHL, NHRA
UniMas scored 1.2 million viewers for Wednesday’s Mexico-United States U-23 Olympic soccer qualifier, its largest audience for a live event since November 2019. … Recent NHL numbers on NBCSN: 450,000 (Flyers-Rangers on 3/17), 449,000 (Sabres-Penguins Wednesday), 257,000 (Kings-Avalanche on 3/14), 254,000 (Golden Knights-Kings last Sunday), 246,000 (Bruins-Penguins on 3/16), 200,000 (Devils-Flyers on Tuesday). Five other games the past two weeks have been under the 200K mark. Of the nine games the past two weeks that can be compared to 2019, Bruins-Penguins was the only one to increase (+82%). … The NHRA season opener back on March 14 averaged a 0.7 rating and 1.03 million viewers on FOX, the network’s largest NHRA audience since 2017.
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 3.17, 3.24 a, b, Univision, Fox Sports PR/Twitter 3.16]
