A nailbiter between the Panthers and Packers scored a modest bump in the overnight ratings. Also: MLS Cup viewership sank from last year’s primetime match; the post-LeBron Cavaliers were not much of a draw for ESPN.
NFL overnights: modest bump for Packers-Panthers
Sunday’s Week 10 NFL national window (Packers-Panthers in 70% of markets) averaged a 14.6 overnight rating on FOX, up 7% from last year on CBS (mostly Seahawks-Rams: 13.7) and even with 2017 on FOX (Cowboys-Falcons).
Overnights for the first game of the FOX doubleheader were not available.
Over on CBS, singleheader coverage featuring Chiefs-Titans in 51% of markets averaged a 9.6 (+3%) — the highest for the window in Week 10 since 2015 on FOX (11.7).
MLS Cup down from last year, up from ’17
Sunday’s Seattle-Toronto MLS Cup averaged a combined 1.27 million viewers across ABC, Univision and TUDN, per Nielsen fast-nationals — down 28% from last year’s Saturday night final on FOX and UniMas (Atlanta-Portland: 1.76M), but up 15% from the 2017 final between the same teams in a similar afternoon window on ESPN, UniMas and TUDN (1.11M).
Seattle’s win averaged 823,000 viewers on ABC alone, peaking at 1.09 million from 4:45-5 PM ET — down 47% from last year on FOX (1.56M) but up 2% from 2017 on ESPN (803K). It was the most-watched MLS Cup on ESPN/ABC since 2014 (three telecasts).
Seattle-Tacoma led all markets for ABC’s coverage with a whopping 13.2 rating.
Coverage on Univision/TUDN averaged 447,000, the event’s largest Spanish-language audience since 2016 (601K).
Post-LeBron Cavs not much of a draw for ESPN
Cavaliers-Wizards averaged a 0.5 rating and 825,000 viewers on ESPN NBA Friday last week, down 40% in ratings and 39% in viewership from last year (Thunder-Wizards: 0.9, 1.36M) and down 54% and 53% respectively from the same matchup in 2017 (1.15, 1.76M). LeBron James was playing for the Cavaliers back then.
Speaking of James, Heat-Lakers averaged a 0.33 and 514,000 viewers on NBA TV later in the night — topping ESPN’s competing Washington-Baylor college basketball game head-to-head (0.33, 501K).
[Nielsen estimates from Fox Sports, CBS Sports, Univision, ESPN PR 11.11, Programming Insider 11.11]
