More ratings: F1, SRX and more

Through eight races, the Formula 1 season is averaging 928,000 viewers on ESPN — up 36% from the first eight races of last year’s months-delayed season (680K) and up 35% from the first eight races in 2019 (689K). Viewership is up 53% over last year’s full-season average (608K) and up 38% from the full season in 2019 (672K).

Last Sunday’s Styrian Grand Prix averaged a 0.6 rating and 914,000 viewers, marking the largest audience on record for an F1 race from Austria and the ninth-largest F1 audience ever on cable. All eight races this season rank among the 15 most-watched ever on cable, including five of the top ten.

Max Verstappen’s win peaked at 1.18 million from 10:15-10:30 PM ET.

Last week’s edition of the SRX on CBS averaged a series-high 1.37 million viewers and trailed the same day’s NASCAR Cup Series race on NBCSN (1.45M) by just five percent. Keep in mind that NASCAR race — a rare Saturday afternoon race on cable — was the least-watched Cup Series event since at least 2000. In adults 18-49, the SRX edged NASCAR, 0.23 to 0.22.

Pushed back to 11:30 PM ET due to weather, the final night of the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials averaged just 379,000 viewers on NBCSN last Sunday. By comparison, coverage on NBC the previous night averaged 3.20 million. … Exact figures were not immediately available, but NBC says last week’s Women’s PGA Championship was the most-watched since 2006, with the network’s third and final round telecasts up 105 and 44 percent respectively from last year. … Last Saturday’s Mystics-Wings WNBA game averaged 567,000 viewers on CBS, the league’s third-largest audience of the season behind a pair of games on ABC May 16. Viewership increased a third from the previous CBS window a week earlier (Sun-Sky: 427K).