The NFL Preseason opened with a ratings gain for the Hall of Fame Game. Plus: viewership highs for Major League Baseball, NASCAR and F1; more ratings news.
Hall of Fame Game posts increase over last year
Thursday’s Jets-Browns NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame Game averaged a 3.3 rating and 5.98 million viewers on NBC, up 6% in ratings and 9% in viewership from last year (Jaguars-Raiders: 3.1, 5.48M). Figures exclude a 13-minute lighting delay that averaged a 2.9 and 5.27 million.
Despite the increase, viewership was the third-lowest for the game in the past decade — ahead of only last year and 2019 (5.33M). The game averaged nearly 11 million viewers as recently as 2015.
As one would expect, the Hall of Fame Game dominated the night on television in ratings, viewership and the key demos.
Season-high audience for MLB on FOX
Regional Major League Baseball action on FOX (mostly Yankees-Orioles) averaged a 1.4 rating and 2.65 million viewers last weekend, marking the largest MLB audience of the season on any network. Ratings and viewership cruised past the comparable weekend last year (0.9, 1.65M). FOX also drew a 1.2 and 2.02 million for a Thursday night regional window (mostly Astros-Yankees); there was no comparable year-ago telecast.
Shifting to cable, Yankees-Orioles drew a 0.9 and 1.63 million on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball — up comfortably from Cubs-Giants last year (0.7, 1.26M). TBS scored a 0.19 and 319,000 for Rays-Yankees on Tuesday night, down from last year’s Dodgers-Giants (446K).
NASCAR, F1, hit highs last weekend
Last weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race from Richmond averaged a 1.4 rating and 2.43 million viewers on USA Network, the largest audience for the second Richmond race of the season since 2016 (2.71M). Chris Buescher’s win, which peaked with 2.7 million viewers, increased 2% from last year (2.39M). Prior to last year, the race aired opposite pro or college football games.
Earlier in the day, the F1 Belgian Grand Prix drew a 0.6 and 1.17 million on ESPN — the largest audience ever for the event and up 12% from the previous high set last year.
F1 races are now averaging 1.24 million viewers this season, down slightly from the comparable point of last season — when viewership was boosted by the inaugural Miami Grand Prix (1.28M). All-but-two races this season have averaged at least one million viewers.
Plus: UFC, PGA Tour, TBT
- UFC 291 prelims averaged a combined 1.1 rating and 1.98 million viewers across ABC (0.7, 1.12M), ESPN (0.44, 837K) and ESPN Deportes (0.01, 25K) last Saturday night, the most-watched PPV prelims ever on the ESPN family of networks. The previous record was set by UFC 290 three weeks earlier (1.89M). On English-language TV alone, it was the most-watched UFC telecast since ESPN acquired rights.
- Final round coverage of the PGA Tour at the Twin Cities averaged a 1.1 rating and 1.67 million viewers last Sunday, marking the lowest rated and least-watched final round of the tournament in its short history. Third round action posted a year-over-year gain to a 0.9 (+21%) and 1.44 million (+30%).
- Thursday’s championship game of The Basketball Tournament averaged 198,000 viewers on ESPN, up 8% from last year (183K), but still the second-smallest audience for the event since it moved to ESPN in 2015.
For more sports TV ratings, see the latest weekly charts.
(Some Nielsen estimates from Programming Insider 8.4)
