Ratings: NWSL, Fights, PGA Tour, Backstory

Saturday’s NWSL Challenge Cup opener between North Carolina and Portland averaged a 0.37 rating and 572,000 viewers on CBS, easily marking the largest audience in the history of the league. The previous high was 190,000 for a 2014 match between Los Angeles and Houston.

By comparison, regular season telecasts on ESPN2 and ESPNEWS last year averaged 81,000 viewers.

In addition to setting a league record, the match was the most-watched soccer broadcast of the weekend. It topped a competing Manchester United-Norwich City FA Cup match on ESPN by 51% (378K).

The 12th UFC main event on ESPN averaged a 0.7 rating and 1.07 million viewers Saturday night, marking the highest rated and most-watched UFC telecast since mid-May (0.75, 1.20M). Ratings increased 18% and viewership 17% from the previous week (0.57, 912K).

Prelims were also up week-over-week, averaging a 0.41 (+17%) and 635,000 (+24%)

Later in the night, ESPN averaged a 0.26 and 418,000 for a Top Rank Boxing card — the largest Top Rank audience since its return from hiatus three weeks ago.

Sunday’s final round of the PGA Tour at Hartford averaged a 2.0 rating and 3.07 million viewers on CBS, up 43% in ratings and 41% in viewership from last year (1.4, 2.17M), but flat and down 1% respectively from 2018 (2.0, 3.09M).

Ratings and viewership bounced back from the previous week’s final round at the Heritage, which was affected by rain (1.3, 2.04M), but fell short of the final round at Colonial two weeks prior (2.1, 3.09M).

Lead-in coverage on Golf Channel averaged a 0.7 (+74%) and 1.09 million (+66%), the network’s largest lead-in audience on record at the tournament. It was also the most-watched lead-in on the network overall since the final round at Pebble Beach in February (1.14M).

Returning to CBS, Saturday’s third round coverage averaged a 1.5 (+36%) and 2.17 million (+42%), the highest in at least five years.

A new episode of ESPN’s Backstory about the 2010 LeBron James free agency special “The Decision” averaged just 186,000 viewers Sunday, easily the least-watched of the network’s recent Sunday night premieres. The previous low was 482,000 for the previous week’s ESPY Awards. Unlike the previous premieres, Backstory aired solely on ESPN with no ESPN2 simulcast.

Viewership fell 45% from the previous Backstory premiere in January, which faced NFL playoff competition but had a direct lead-in from Postseason NFL Countdown (339K). The January episode was about the lifetime bans of Pete Rose and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson from Major League Baseball.