Duke’s upset of Clemson fell double-digits from last year; NASCAR hit a viewership low at Darlington; and more sports ratings items.
Clemson-Duke down from last year’s Labor Day game
Monday’s Clemson-Duke college football game averaged 4.39 million viewers on ESPN, down 11% from Clemson-Georgia Tech last year (4.86M), but still the fourth-largest audience of week one. Only FSU-LSU on ABC (9.17M), Colorado-TCU on FOX (7.26M) and Ohio State-Indiana on CBS (4.65M) averaged more viewers.
For more college football numbers, see the following breakdowns of Saturday and Sunday viewership.
Beyond the actual games, the season premiere of ESPN’s “College Gameday” averaged a combined 1.7 million viewers across ESPN (1.66M) and ESPNU (45K) — down from 2.1 million last year. “Gameday” still comfortably outdrew “Big Noon Kickoff” on FOX, which averaged 1.1 million.
NASCAR hits low at Darlington; F1 up
The NASCAR Cup Series playoff opener from Darlington (S.C.) averaged a 1.2 rating and 2.29 million viewers on USA Network Sunday evening, marking the smallest audience for the race since 2019 — when coverage did not begin until after 10 PM ET due to rain (1.86M). Kyle Larson’s win declined 12% in ratings and 2% in viewership from last year (1.4, 2.34M).
Earlier in the day, the F1 Italian Grand Prix averaged a 0.54 and 1.05 million on ESPN Sunday morning — the largest audience ever for the race, topping the previous high set last year on ESPN2 (995K).
Rounding out the Sunday action, IndyCar from Portland drew a 0.6 and 953,000 — flat in ratings and down 3% in viewership from last year (0.6, 979K). IndyCar outdrew the NHRA on FOX head-to-head, which drew a 0.36 and 612,000.
Plus: US Open, MLB, Premier League, FIBA
— US Open tennis coverage featuring Coco Gauff’s round of 16 win over Caroline Wozniacki averaged a 1.2 rating and 2.05 million viewers on ABC last Sunday, easily the most-watched telecast window of the tournament thus far. Across ABC, ESPN (0.53, 895K) and ESPN2 (0.40, 736K), Sunday’s day session averaged a 0.7 and 1.30 million — down a tick in ratings and 5% in viewership from last year on ESPN alone (0.8, 1.38M).
— Regional Major League Baseball action on FOX averaged a 1.0 rating and 1.93 million viewers Saturday night, up 85% in ratings and 103% in viewership from last year (0.55, 949K). The following night, Yankees-Astros averaged 1.33 million viewers across ESPN (1.29M) and ESPN Deportes (41K) on Sunday Night Baseball — up 11% from Padres-Dodgers last year (1.20M).
— Last Sunday’s Arsenal-Manchester United English Premier League match averaged a combined 0.8 rating and 1.39 million viewers across NBC (0.6, 1.06M) and Telemundo (0.17, 331K), with viewership rising to 1.8 million including additional streaming data not tracked by Nielsen — the second-largest EPL audience ever on U.S. television. (The English-language audience is the third-largest.)
— The United States’ group play loss to Lithuania in the FIBA World Cup averaged a 0.17 rating and 334,000 viewers on ESPN2 last Sunday morning, not surprisingly the largest audience of the event thus far. It was the first game of the tournament to air in the waking hours on a weekend.
For more sports ratings, see the latest weekly chart. Monday viewership from Sports TV Ratings 9.7.
