Aaron Judge’s milestone 61st home run of the season attracted a smaller TV crowd than the previous night. Plus: NASCAR Texas viewership hit a low; the Presidents Cup trailed the previous U.S. edition; and more.
Judge’s 61 milestone sees viewer dip from previous night
Wednesday’s Yankees-Blue Jays Major League Baseball game, in which Yankee OF Aaron Judge tied the all-time American League single-season home run record of 61, averaged 675,000 viewers on YES Network and 580,000 on MLB Network — down from the previous night’s game on YES (708K) and TBS (787K). The YES audience peaked at 956,000 viewers during the quarter-hour in which Judge hit his home run, higher than the prior night peak of 901,000.
NASCAR Texas viewership hits low
NASCAR Cup Series racing from Texas averaged a 1.1 rating and 1.91 million viewers on USA Network last weekend, marking the lowest rating and viewership for the race (excluding makeup races) since it debuted in 2005. Ratings and viewership fell double-digits from last year on NBC (1.5, ~2.4M). Keep in mind there was a lengthy rain delay.
Texas was the fourth-straight race to decline from last year and the third-straight to drop double-digits to a multi-year low.
Presidents Cup down from previous U.S. edition
Last Sunday’s final day of the Presidents Cup golf tournament averaged a 1.15 rating and 1.89 million viewers on NBC, down from the last time the event took place in the United States five years ago (1.5, 2.26M). Compared to the previous Presidents Cup three years ago — when final day coverage aired in the overnight hours on Golf Channel — ratings and viewership increased slightly from a 1.1 and 1.71 million.
Coverage last Saturday pulled a 0.9 and 1.39 million, down sharply from five years ago (1.4, 2.0M).
Plus: Federer finale, Top Rank Boxing, NCAA volleyball
Roger Federer’s final tennis match, a Laver Cup doubles match in which he and Rafael Nadal lost to Frances Tiafoe and Jack Sock, averaged 327,000 viewers on Tennis Channel September 23. … The September 23 edition of ESPN Top Rank Boxing averaged a 0.7 rating and 1.08 million viewers, the largest audience for the series since a post-NFL Draft telecast in April (1.17M). … ESPN last month scored its two largest regular season college volleyball audiences in the past five years, with Louisville-Kentucky scoring 302,000 viewers on September 14 and Purdue-Iowa drawing 230,000 last Sunday.
(Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 9.26, 9.27, 9.29, ESPN PR, YES Network)
