Ratings: Olympics wrap, MLB-ABC, racing, golf

Primetime coverage of the Summer Olympics averaged 1.6 million viewers on USA, giving the network its most-watched two weeks in primetime since March 2018. (The USA figures are included in NBC’s overall primetime average of 15.6 million.) USA averaged the largest primetime Summer Olympics audience ever on cable, with the caveat that this is only the third Olympics in which cable networks have provided concurrent primetime coverage.

Outside of primetime, NBC’s late night shows averaged 5.4 million viewers — up 4% from Rio.

ABC averaged 1.63 million viewers for White Sox-Cubs on Sunday Night Baseball last weekend, up 103% from Indians-White Sox on ESPN last year, which was a last-minute replacement for a postponed Cardinals-Cubs game (802K), but down 26% from Red Sox-Yankees in 2019 (2.21M).

The White Sox’ win, which aired opposite the Olympic Closing Ceremony on NBC (8.81M), marked ABC’s first regular season Major League Baseball game since 1995. It ranks fifth among Sunday night games this season.

No other national baseball game last week cracked the 500,000 viewer mark. ESPN drew 475,000 for Phillies-Nationals August 2, up 60% from Mets-Braves on FS1 last year (296K) but down 42% from Braves-Nationals on ESPN in ’19 (819K). Braves-Cardinals drew 428,000 on ESPN Wednesday and 384,000 on Thursday; Mets-Phillies drew 359,000 on ESPN Friday, 368,000 on FS1 Saturday and 257,000 on TBS Sunday; Diamondbacks-Padres drew 230,000 on FS1 Saturday.

Last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race from Watkins Glen (N.Y.) averaged a 1.25 rating and 2.12 million viewers on NBCSN, down 25% in ratings and 22% in viewership from the last time it was held in 2019 (1.7, 2.72M). Excluding rainouts, it was the lowest rated race at Watkins Glen since at least 1999 and the least-watched since at least 2001. Coverage aired opposite the Olympics on NBC, albeit taped coverage on the final day of the event.

The NASCAR lead-in helped NBCSN to its largest IndyCar audience ever, 1.20 million for the Music City Grand Prix from Nashville (1.21M including additional streaming data not tracked by Nielsen). Per NBC, the race is “believed” to be the most-watched IndyCar event on cable since 1998, ahead of the previous high of 934,000 for a 2016 Mid-Ohio race that aired on both CNBC and NBCSN.

NBC Sports is now averaging 1.53 million for IndyCar this season (including additional streaming data), up 35% from last year’s delayed, shortened season, and up 7% from 2019. That includes an average of 761,000 on NBCSN, up 110% from last year and 92% from 2019.

Returning to NASCAR, the Xfinity Series race at Watkins Glen averaged a mere 0.35 and 626,000 on CNBC — a figure that nonetheless outpaced 17 of 18 Olympic windows on the network last week.

Last Sunday’s final round of the PGA Tour/WGC St. Jude Invitational averaged 2.38 million viewers on CBS, down 26% from last year (3.20M) but up 3% from 2019 (2.31M). Coverage aired opposite taped Olympics events on NBC.

The previous weekend’s final round of the Olympic golf tournament averaged 878,000 on Golf Channel, the network’s largest late night audience on record, but well below 2016 — when coverage aired in the afternoon (1.6M). The full tournament averaged 565,000 in primetime, the network’s most-watched four-day stretch in primetime since the 2019 President’s Cup (the obvious caveat being that primetime golf is a rarity).

Final round coverage of the women’s competition averaged 595,000 last Friday, down from Rio (691K) but the largest women’s golf audience on Golf Channel since the 2017 Solheim Cup.