FOX scored its smallest NFL preseason audience in 11 years; ESPN posted declines for a pair of Yankees-A’s games; the Tour Championship got off to its slowest start in three years; the BIG3 earned its smallest audience yet on broadcast TV.
FOX posts smallest preseason audience in 11 years
Thursday’s Jaguars-Dolphins NFL preseason game averaged a 2.1 rating and 3.32 million viewers on FOX, marking the network’s least-watched preseason game since 2008 (Panthers-Eagles: 3.16M). Ratings declined 50% and viewership 49% from last year’s comparable Eagles-Browns game (4.2, 6.52M).
Locally, the game had a 17.3 rating in Jacksonville and a 6.9 in Miami-Ft. Lauderdale.
Yankees-A’s down double-digits on ESPN
Wednesday’s Yankees-A’s Major League Baseball game averaged 557,000 viewers on ESPN, down 17% from last year (Cardinals-Dodgers: 672K), but up 36% from 2017 (Rangers-Angels: 411K). Ratings were not immediately available.
The same matchup had a 0.33 rating (-20%) and 481,000 viewers (-20%) the previous night. It topped only Mariners-Yankees in May (471K) as the least-watched Yankee game on ESPN this year.
Tour Championship opens at three-year low
Thursday’s opening round of the Tour Championship, the final event in the PGA Tour FedEx Cup, averaged 583,000 viewers on Golf Channel — down 22% from last year (751K), down 2% from 2017 (595K), and a three-year low. Tiger Woods, who won the tournament last year, did not make the field this year.
BIG3 hits broadcast TV low
Coverage of BIG3 basketball averaged a 0.35 rating and 486,000 viewers on CBS last Saturday, marking the league’s smallest audience yet on broadcast television (15 telecasts dating back to 2017). The previous low was 547,000 for coverage on CBS in July.
[Nielsen estimates via Programming Insider 8.23 a, b; Fox Sports, ShowBuzz Daily 8.20, 8.22]
