NASCAR scored its largest FS1 audience in four years; Knicks-Clippers gave the NBA its top cable audience in weeks; Sunday Night Baseball hit a speed bump; the NHL set an all-time low in its final regular season appearance on NBC.
NASCAR Darlington race hits FS1 high
Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race from Darlington averaged a 1.7 rating and 3.09 million viewers on FS1, marking the network’s largest Cup Series audience in four years (2017 Sonoma: 3.24M). Last year’s spring Darlington race, which marked NASCAR’s return from a two-month hiatus, averaged a 3.7 and 6.32 million on the FOX broadcast network.
Darlington was the most-watched sporting event of the weekend, narrowly topping the final round of the PGA Tour at Quail Hollow on broadcast network CBS (3.05M).
Knicks-Clippers is NBA’s top cable game since February
Sunday’s Knicks-Clippers NBA regular season game averaged a 0.8 rating and 1.59 million viewers on ESPN, marking the league’s largest cable audience since Warriors-Lakers on the same network February 28 (1.65M). Heat-Celtics pulled a 0.6 an 1.10 million earlier in the day.
In other action, Lakers-Blazers drew a 0.7 and 1.17 million on ESPN last Friday, preceded by Celtics-Bulls at a 0.6 and 896,000. Lakers-Clippers last Thursday drew a 0.8 and 1.31 million on TNT, with Nets-Mavericks leading in at a 0.7 and 1.12 million.
Finally, Nets-Bucks drew a 0.7 and 1.12 million on TNT last Tuesday, followed by Raptors-Clippers at a 0.6 and 976,000.
Slight dip for Sunday Night Baseball
Phillies-Braves averaged 1.73 million viewers on the latest edition of ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball, including a Statcast simulcast on ESPN2 — down 5% from Cardinals-Cubs on the comparable May date in 2019 (1.81M). Compared to the sixth Sunday night game of last year’s delayed, shortened season (Braves-Phillies on August 30) viewership jumped 43% from 1.20 million. The ESPN-only rating was a 0.85.
In other action, Angels-Astros drew 693,000 viewers on ESPN Monday night — up 38% from 2019 (Cardinals-Phillies: 504K). FS1 chipped in a 0.23 rating (-4%) and 451,000 viewers (+13%) for Phillies-Braves and a 0.18 (-53%) and 356,000 (-39%) for Padres-Giants on Saturday.
NBC sets all-time record low in NHL regular season finale
NBC’s final NHL regular season game — regionalized coverage of Rangers-Bruins or Sabres-Penguins — averaged a 0.31 rating and 502,000 viewers Saturday afternoon, marking the lowest NHL rating ever on a broadcast network. The previous low of 0.34 was set a week earlier by Lightning-Red Wings on NBC. Keep in mind that neither game aired on NBC in the participating markets.
Fully half of NBC’s 16 NHL windows this season averaged a 0.5 rating or lower. By comparison, none of the network’s ten pre-hiatus windows last season averaged less than a 0.6.
In other action, NBCSN pulled 238,000 for Islanders-Bruins Monday night.
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 5.5, 5.7, 5.10, 5.11 a, b]
