Recent sports TV ratings, including the NASCAR Playoffs, Major League Baseball and more.
NASCAR holds up better opposite Week 1 of NFL
Last weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race from Atlanta averaged 2.02 million viewers on USA Network, down 21% from last year (2.56M) and the least-watched edition of the race since it returned to the schedule three years ago, with the caveat that the race had not previously coincided with the NFL season.
Compared to the race on the same NFL weekend last year — Kansas — viewership increased 15% from 1.76 million.
Red Sox-Yankees lifts Thursday MLB on FOX; Sunday Night Baseball hits low
Regional Major League Baseball action featuring Red Sox-Yankees averaged a 1.1 rating and 1.93 million viewers on FOX Thursday night — up from the comparable week last year (1.0, 1.68M). Going back to last weekend, FOX drew a 0.6 and 1.13 million for its traditional Saturday regional window.
In other MLB action, ESPN drew 407,000 for Diamondbacks-Astros on Sunday Night Baseball last weekend — down from Rockies-Giants last year (640K) and the smallest audience for the Sunday night series in at least a decade.
Plus: Paralympics, NWSL, bull riding
— The Paris Paralympics, which concluded last Sunday, averaged 1.2 million viewers across NBC and Peacock (Nielsen plus Adobe Analytics), up 31% from Tokyo in 2021 (888K). Coverage on USA Network averaged 162,000, up 113% from cable coverage in ’21, which consisted of a solo telecast on the now-defunct NBCSN. Viewership topped out at 1.8 million for NBC’s primetime window on September 1, marking the second-largest Paralympics audience on record.
— The Nielsen-rated portion of last Sunday’s San Diego-North Carolina NWSL match — the final appearance of Alex Morgan — averaged 76,000 on ESPN2. The match also aired on ESPN+, CBSSN, Paramount+ and Prime Video, none of which are Nielsen-rated.
— Airing adjacent to NFL singleheader coverage, PBR Bull Riding averaged 1.77 million viewers on CBS last Sunday — slightly outpacing the average of NFL-adjacent PBR events last season (1.72M).
