A new date had little impact on Thursday’s PGA Championship viewership. Also: the NHL Eastern Conference Finals ended on a lower note; the Cubs gave Sunday Night Baseball a second-straight increase; Premier Boxing Champions beat the UFC and Top Rank Boxing last Saturday night.
PGA Championship opens with slight bump in new date
Thursday’s opening round of the PGA Championship earned 990,000 viewers on TNT, up 1% from last year (979K) but down 7% from 2017 (1.06M). Prior to this year, the tournament took place in the month of August. As was the case last year, Tiger Woods had mostly completed his round by the time TNT came on the air.
Fewer viewers for B’s-Canes finale
The clinching Game 4 of the Bruins-Hurricanes NHL Eastern Conference final earned 1.86 million viewers on NBCSN Thursday night, down 9% from Lightning-Capitals last year (2.05M), but up 20% from Penguins-Senators in 2017 (1.55M). Ratings were not immediately available.
The Bruins’ win was the least-watched game of the series, and the only one to decline from last year. It faced direct competition from the series finale of “The Big Bang Theory” on CBS (18.52M).
Cubs give Sunday Night Baseball second-straight bump
Brewers-Cubs scored a 1.0 rating and 1.71 million viewers on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball last weekend, up 35% in ratings and 43% in viewership from last year (Nationals-D’Backs: 0.75, 1.20M), but down 14% and 11% respectively from Yankees-Cubs two years ago (1.5, 2.43M).
Sunday Night Baseball began the season with five straight declines, but last week marked the series’ second-straight increase. Not coincidentally, the back-to-back increases have come in the Cubs’ first two Sunday night appearances of the season.
In other action, Monday’s Brewers-Phillies game had 794,000 viewers on ESPN — up 43% from last year (Rays-Royals: 556K) and up 51% from 2017 (Astros-Marlins: 527K). Ratings were not available. ESPN also drew 516,000 viewers for Cardinals-Braves on Wednesday night.
Over on FS1, last Saturday’s Indians-A’s game scored a 0.25 (+25%) and 394,000 (+20%).
PBC on FOX tops UFC and Top Rank on ESPN
The latest edition of Premier Boxing Champions on the FOX broadcast network scored a 0.9 rating and 1.39 million viewers last Saturday night, up 29% in ratings and 27% in viewership from the network’s previous card last month (0.7, 1.09M), but down 18% and 15% respectively from two months ago (1.1, 1.63M).
The telecast topped both competing fight cards on ESPN. The UFC 237 prelims had a 0.53 and 813,000 and Top Rank Boxing had a 0.48 and 740,000. In the key adults 18-49 demographic, PBC and UFC tied at a 0.33.
