The Masters got off to a slower start than last year, but its second-best start in the past five. Plus: Lakers-Clippers was the exception in a down week for the NBA on ESPN and TNT; the XFL hit highs and lows last weekend; and more.
Masters opening round below last year, but second-best in five years
Thursday’s opening round of the Masters averaged 2.51 million viewers on ESPN, down 11% from last year, which marked Tiger Woods’ return to the event after a car accident (2.82M), but up 8% from two years ago (2.33M).
The telecast, which peaked with 2.9 million viewers from 5:45-6 PM ET, trails only last year as the most-watched opening round of the Masters since 2018 (2.97M). Keep in mind Nielsen did not include out-of-home viewing in final nationals prior to three years ago.
Lakers-Clippers bucks downward trend for midweek NBA
Wednesday’s Lakers-Clippers NBA regular season game averaged 1.66 million viewers on ESPN, up 63% from Suns-Clippers last year (1.02M). The Clippers’ win was the only game on ESPN and TNT this week to post an increase over last year, with the Bucks-Bulls lead-in down 25% (to 1.10M), Nuggets-Suns (1.10M) and Heat-Sixers (1.04M) down 33% and 23% respectively on Thursday, and Celtics-Sixers (1.03M) down 14% on Tuesday. Keep in mind Tuesday’s game faced unusually strong cable news competition.
In other NBA action, last Sunday’s Warriors-Nuggets game on NBA TV averaged a 0.40 and 687,000, tying Timberwolves-Warriors a week earlier as the network’s most-watched game of the season.
XFL hits three-week cable high, season-low
Last Sunday’s St. Louis-Houston XFL regular season game averaged a 0.29 rating and 502,000 viewers on ESPN, making it the most-watched XFL game on cable in three weeks. The multi-week high came despite direct competition from the record-setting LSU-Iowa NCAA women’s basketball tournament final (9.9M).
In other XFL action last weekend, ESPN drew a 0.19 and 365,000 for DC-Orlando on Saturday, preceded by a 0.22 and 356,000 for San Antonio-Vegas on ESPN2. FX brought up the rear with a 177,000 for Seattle-Arlington last Friday, its final game of the season — the smallest XFL audience on record, including prior iterations of the league.
MLB on TBS, pickleball, IndyCar, Bundesliga
Phillies-Yankees averaged 401,000 viewers on the season premiere of MLB on TBS Tuesday, easily topping the network’s opener last season, Padres-Giants in a later timeslot (173K). … A live pickleball competition involving retired tennis players John McEnroe, Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick and Michael Chang averaged a 0.38 rating and 669,000 viewers on ESPN last weekend, topping the XFL lead-out that followed, if no match for competing bull riding on CBS (1.03M) and bowling on FOX (742K). … Last Sunday’s IndyCar Series race from Texas drew a 0.53 and 830,000 on NBC, down 15% and 13% respectively from last year (0.6, 954K). … Last Saturday’s Bayern Munich-Dortmund Bundesliga match on ABC averaged a 0.38 and 624,000, narrowly trailing a Sunday Manchester United-Newcastle match on USA Network as the most-watched soccer telecast of the week on English-language TV (Liga MX took top honors overall with two matches topping the million viewer mark).
