Ratings: Tiger’s win, MLS, NWSL, Skating

The conclusion of the PGA Tour ZOZO Championship, which marked Tiger Woods‘ record-tying 82nd PGA Tour victory, averaged a 0.48 rating and 789,000 viewers on Golf Channel last Sunday evening — the network’s most-watched October telecast since the 2009 Presidents Cup (1.17M).

It was also the most-watched “Asia Swing” tournament ever on Golf Channel, topping the previous high set a week earlier by 739%, and the network’s top program since the Tour Championship in August (1.08M).

The telecast ranked fifth for the weekend among cable sporting events, behind a NASCAR race on NBCSN and three college football games on ESPN.

Last Thursday’s LAFC-Galaxy Major League Soccer playoff match averaged 871,000 viewers across ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes, the largest audience on record for an MLS playoff match on the ESPN family of networks (excluding the MLS Cup). The previous high was 822,000 for Dynamo-Galaxy in 2009.

This past Tuesday night, the Sounders-LAFC semifinal averaged 661,000 on ESPN and ESPN Deportes, including 389,000 on ESPN alone (+7%).

ESPN and ESPN2 have averaged 388,000 for MLS postseason coverage thus far (+36%), the networks’ highest average since 2012 (392K).

The North Carolina-Chicago NWSL championship averaged 166,000 viewers on ESPN last Sunday afternoon, up 43% from last year’s final, which aired on Lifetime, and the league’s largest audience since the 2016 final on FS1 (180K).

The semifinal round averaged 148,000 on ESPN2, up 66% from last year’s matches on Lifetime. The full season averaged 81,000 on ESPN2 and ESPNEWS (+7%).

Taped coverage of Skate Canada, the second event in the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating, averaged a 0.6 rating and 842,000 viewers on NBC last Sunday — flat in ratings but down 4% in viewership from last year (0.6, 880K). The telecast averaged a larger audience than did Skate America on NBC the previous week, which aired in an earlier timeslot (820K).