In a preview of the months to come, the NFL topped the weekly sports ratings charts with its preseason opener.
With the USWNT playing its (final) two Women’s World Cup matches in the overnight hours, last Thursday’s Pro Football Hall of Fame Game (Jets-Browns) was easily the most-watched sportscast of the week with nearly six million viewers last Thursday night.
The USWNT’s loss to Sweden in the round of 16 ranked a distant second for the week with 2.71 million across FOX (2.5M) and Telemundo and Universo (177K). That figure includes pre-match coverage.
Placing third, 78 minutes of NASCAR rainout coverage averaged 2.60 million on USA Network. Figures for Monday’s makeup race were not immediately available.
A Thursday night Major League Baseball window on FOX (2.03M) and final round coverage of the PGA Tour Wyndham Championship on CBS (1.67M) rounded out the top five.
In other action, Saturday’s Netherlands-South Africa Women’s World Cup match averaged 1.3 million on FOX, airing in a primetime window intended for the United States. All four USWNT matches, including their 3:30 AM ET group play matchup with Portugal last Tuesday, averaged more viewers.
An encore presentation of Simone Biles’ return to competition at gymnastics’ U.S. Classic averaged 1.06 million on NBC Sunday. Live coverage on CNBC averaged 318,000 the previous night.
In a WNBA Finals preview that turned into a 40-point laugher, Aces-Liberty averaged 603,000 viewers on ABC. LIV Golf clocked in at 232,000 for the final day of its Greenbrier tournament on The CW Sunday.
Weekly sports ratings, July 31-August 6
For ratings from the comparable week last year, see this article on ShowBuzz Daily.
