NBC sees a double-digit decline for the PGA Tour’s Tour Championship. Plus: U.S. Open gets a strong number on ABC; NASCAR’s Darlington race scores increase while F1’s Italian Grand Prix holds strong.
Tour Championship sees double-digit decline
Final round coverage of The Tour Championship, the final event of the PGA Tour FedEx Cup, averaged 2.69 million viewers on NBC last Sunday — down 13% from last year on CBS (3.1M on CBS). Scottie Scheffler‘s four-stroke win clocked in as the least-watched final round of the event since 2017, when it was still held in late September. Third round coverage Saturday averaged 1.62 million viewers against a crowded college football schedule, down 17% from 2023.
The Tour Championship continues a poor trend for the FedEx Cup, which has seen declines in all three events this season. The first round PGA Tour St. Jude Championship was down 31% from last season, while the second round BMW Championship declined 19%.
NASCAR up while F1 holds even
NASCAR Cup Series racing from Darlington (S.C.), the first race of the NASCAR Playoffs, averaged 2.4 million viewers on USA — up 5% from last year’s race (2.29M). The 2023 edition marked the lowest viewership for the event since a rain delay in 2019 pushed the start of the race to 10 PM ET.
In other racing action, the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix averaged a record 1.08 million viewers, up slightly from last year’s 1.05 million. The F1 season is up 1% from this point last year, and 5% versus last year’s season-average.
Plus: US Open, EPL, Paralympics, MLB
— U.S. Open coverage featuring the Emma Navarro–Coco Gauff round of 16 match averaged 2.15 million viewers on ABC last Sunday, up 5% from the 2.05 million on ABC last year, a window that also featured Gauff. Figures for Thursday’s women’s semifinals were not immediately available.
— Peacock’s exclusive broadcast of the Manchester United-Liverpool soccer match Sunday averaged 1.00 million viewers on the streamer. It was the third most-streamed EPL match in U.S. history, clocking in behind two matches from last season. The figure includes both English and Spanish language broadcasts.
— The Paralympics on NBC is up 49% through Monday from the 2021 edition in Tokyo. NBC windows are averaging 1.32 million viewers for the event. Sunday’s primetime window averaged 1.75 million viewers, the second-most watched Paralympic telecast on record.
— Regional baseball action on FOX averaged 2.04 million viewers on Saturday, up 6% from the same window last year (1.93M). ESPN’s Phillies-Braves game on “Sunday Night Baseball” drew 1.58 million viewers, up 19% from Yankees-Astros last year (1.33M).
