The PGA Tour FedEx Cup topped the sports ratings charts for a second-straight week, plus numbers for a host of other events.
Sunday’s final round of the PGA Tour BMW Championship averaged a 1.9 rating and 3.03 million viewers on CBS, up 6% in ratings and 7% in viewership from last year and the most-watched sportscast of the week. The FedEx Cup also took top honors the previous week.
While golf won out overall, it should be noted that the final round ranked sixth for the week in 18-49, seventh in 18-34 and third in 25-54.
NASCAR at Watkins Glen placed second with a 1.3 and 2.31 million, down 13% in ratings and 10% in viewership from last year (1.5, 2.56M) and the second-straight race to decline double-digits.
The NFL preseason took third place with a 1.1 and 2.02 million for Saints-Chargers on NFL Network Sunday night. There were two games in the same Sunday night window last year, one on FOX (Ravens-Cardinals: 3.22M) and one on NFL Network (1.36M).
Rounding out the top five, the third round of the BMW Championship placed fourth with a 1.2 and 2.01 million and FOX coverage of the Spain-England Women’s World Cup Final pulled a 1.0 and 1.81 million. Adding in the Spanish-language audience on Telemundo and Universo (0.21, 322K), the Women’s World Cup Final would rank third for the week with a combined average of 1.2 and 2.14 million.
Outside of the top five:
— The Inter Miami-Nashville Leagues Cup final, Lionel Messi’s second match on Nielsen-rated television, averaged a 0.6 and 1.45 million on Univision Saturday night — down from his Miami debut on the same network last month (1.75M).
— The Phillies-Nationals Sunday Night Baseball game from the Little League World Series pulled a combined 1.60 million across ESPN (0.7, 1.36M), ESPN2 (0.1, 195K) and ESPN Deportes (0.0, 43K), up 11% from Red Sox-Orioles last year (1.44M). (* An earlier version of this post mistakenly said viewership was even with last year.)
— ESPN drew a 0.65 and 1.24 million for UFC 292 prelims, the network’s largest single-network UFC audience since February of last year (1.53M).
— NBC coverage of the World Track & Field Championships from Budapest averaged a 0.7 and 1.11 million on Sunday and a 0.6 and 934,000 on Saturday, unsurprisingly down from last year’s equivalent windows, when the event took place in the United States (2.24 and 2.13 million respectively).
— The Novak Djokovic-Carlos Alcaraz men’s final at the tennis Cincinnati Masters averaged 0.27 and 474,000 on Tennis Channel, with the Coco Gauff-Karolína Muchová women’s final at a 0.20 and 325,000 earlier in the day. Viewership increased 80 and 45 percent respectively from last year’s finals, Borna Ćorić-Stefanos Tsitsipas (263K) and Caroline Garcia-Petra Kvitova (224K).
— The final USA basketball exhibition before the FIBA World Cup, a comeback win over Germany, averaged a 0.35 and 585,000 on FOX Sunday afternoon, down from the previous week’s exhibition on the network. In other basketball action, the BIG3 playoffs averaged 426,000 on CBS Saturday and the Slamball playoffs 164,000 on ESPN last Thursday.
— Beyond the six live games, each of which averaged more than a million viewers, three NFL preseason encores averaged more than half a million viewers last week. A Sunday afternoon re-air of Saturday’s abridged Patriots-Packers game averaged 896,000, placing third in its timeslot behind NASCAR on NBC and golf on CBS. A 4 AM ET re-air Chiefs-Cardinals Saturday morning averaged more viewers (246K) than the Coco Gauff-Iga Swiatek Cincinnati semifinal on Tennis Channel later the same day (237K).
Weekly sports ratings chart, August 14-20
