Ratings roundup — early timeslots sank the Women’s World Cup semifinals; declines for multiple racing series; plus: MLB, the NFL preseason and more.
WWC semis take hit from early timeslots
FOX averaged a 0.6 rating and 972,000 viewers for Wednesday’s England-Australia FIFA Women’s World Cup semifinal and a 0.3 and 452,000 for Spain-Sweden the previous day, not surprisingly the two least-watched semifinals since at least 2007. Both matches aired in the early morning.
While England-Australia extended into the waking hours — peaking with 1.41 million from 7:30-7:45 AM ET — Spain-Sweden aired entirely in the middle of the night.
The previous non-U.S. semifinals averaged in the neighborhood of two million viewers, with Netherlands-Sweden at 2.34 million on FS1 in 2019, Japan-England at 2.33 million on FS1 in 2015 and Japan-Sweden at 1.95 million on ESPN in 2011. Those matches aired in afternoon or primetime windows. (Figures for the 2007 semifinals, which like this year aired in early morning windows, were not immediately available.)
NASCAR, IndyCar, see declines at Brickyard
Last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race from the Brickyard in Indianapolis averaged a 1.7 rating and 2.84 million viewers on NBC, the smallest audience ever for the race and down 19% and 16% respectively from last year (2.1, 3.37M). The previous lows were a 1.8 and 2.85 million two years ago.
In the previous day’s NASCAR-IndyCar doubleheader on USA Network, the NASCAR Xfinity Series (0.57, 1.03M) nearly doubled IndyCar (0.33, 556K), with both events down sharply from last year on NBC (0.9, 1.52M; 0.7, 1.05M).
Rounding out the racing action, Thursday’s season finale of the SRX racing series averaged a season-high 589,000 viewers on ESPN — down sharply from last year’s finale on CBS (1.06M).
Rainout dings Thursday’s MLB on FOX
Thursday’s Mets-Cardinals Major League Baseball game averaged a 0.8 rating and 1.36 million viewers on FOX, topping only Rays-Padres in June (1.08M) as the network’s least-watched primetime game all season. In both cases, FOX was forced to air one game nationally as a second regional matchup was rained out.
FOX also averaged a 1.3 and 2.31 million (+12%) for its usual Saturday window last weekend, while ESPN drew a 1.0 and 1.69 million (-7%) for Sunday Night Baseball. Returning to the workweek, TBS chipped in a 0.35 and season-high 578,000 for Yankees-Braves on Tuesday.
Plus: Premier League, FedEx Cup, NFL preseason, Little League
— The opening weekend of the English Premier League season averaged 642,000 viewers across the NBC family of networks (including additional streaming data not tracked by Nielsen), up 39% from last year (603K) and the most-watched opening weekend since 2015. The NBC streaming service Peacock averaged 973,000 for Chelsea-Liverpool last Sunday, the largest streaming audience ever for the Premier League.
— Final round coverage of the PGA Tour St. Jude Championship averaged a 1.9 rating and 3.21 million viewers on CBS last Sunday, up 4% in ratings and 8% in viewership from last year (1.8, 2.97M) and the largest audience in eight years for the first event of the FedEx Cup. Coverage bled into primetime due to a playoff and rain delay. Third round action the previous day drew a 1.1 and 1.90 million, in line with last year (1.2, 1.88M).
— Thursday’s Browns-Eagles NFL preseason game averaged 1.66 million viewers on NFL Network, unsurprisingly down 37% from Bears-Seahawks on ESPN last year (2.65M).
— The Little League Softball World Series averaged 340,000 viewers across the ESPN family of networks, up 16% from last year (294K) and the largest audience for the event since 2010. Last Sunday’s title game averaged 861,000 viewers on ABC, trailing only 2002 as the largest audience ever for the final.
For more ratings, see the latest weekly chart. Additional ratings info from Sports TV Ratings 8.18, Programming Insider 8.18.
