The MLB regular season hit a five-year high on FOX; ESPN scored its smallest college football audience of the season; LeBron and the Lakers delivered TNT’s largest preseason audience in years.
FOX Has Most-Watched MLB Season Since ’13
Regular season Major League Baseball games averaged 2.23 million viewers on FOX, according to Sports Business Daily — up 9% from last year (2.05M), up 11% from 2016 (2.02M), and the network’s most-watched season since 2013 (2.38M). Ratings were not immediately available.
As for the other networks, ESPN averaged 978,000 viewers for its regular season windows — down 2% from last year. Including the network’s National League Wild Card game, it averaged 1.07 million (+2%).
Finally, FS1 averaged 410,000 (-8%) and MLB Network 239,000 (+4%).
Tulsa-Houston Hits ESPN Season-Low
Thursday’s Tulsa-Houston college football game had a 0.38 rating and 562,000 viewers on ESPN, down 61% in ratings and 64% in viewership from last year (Louisville-NC State: 1.0, 1.55M) and down 12% and 10% respectively from 2016 (Temple-Memphis: 0.43, 626K).
The Cougars’ win ranks as the least-watched college football telecast on the flagship ESPN network this season — including an FCS matchup between NC A&T and Jacksonville State in “week zero” (564K).
LeBron, Lakers, Deliver Preseason High on TNT
Tuesday’s Nuggets-Lakers NBA preseason game, marking LeBron James‘ first Laker appearance at Staples Center, scored a 0.6 rating and 929,000 viewers on TNT — the network’s most-watched preseason game since at least 2012.
Earlier in the night, Cavaliers-Celtics drew a 0.47 and 726,000. Last year, TNT’s lone preseason games had 460,000 and 524,000 viewers.
[Numbers from Sports Business Daily 10.5, Programming Insider 10.5, 10.3]
