With another lackluster matchup on schedule, Thursday Night Football hit an NFL primetime low for the second straight week. Plus: WNBA playoff numbers and more.
TNF hits primetime low for second-straight week
The latest edition of Thursday Night Football (Broncos-Jets) averaged a 3.2 rating and 5.41 million viewers on NFL Network, marking the least-watched primetime NFL game in four years — since a Saturday Jets-Dolphins game on NFL Network in 2016 (4.39M). The previous low was 5.43 million for Dolphins-Jaguars the previous week.
TNF aired opposite a Major League Baseball playoff game on ESPN (Cardinals-Padres Game 2: 2.33M), but that was still lighter competition than the previous week, when it faced an NBA conference final game with twice the audience (Lakers-Nuggets Game 4: 4.60M).
Ratings and viewership fell 70% from last year’s Week 4 Thursday night game, which aired on both NFL Network and FOX (Eagles-Packers: 10.5, 17.91M).
WNBA winner-take-all game down vs. debate
Tuesday’s Sun-Aces WNBA semifinal Game 5 averaged 209,000 viewers on ESPN2, down from the previous semifinal Game 5s in 2018 (Mystics-Dream: 430K; Storm-Mercury: 296K). The game aired on the same night as a presidential debate.
Game 4 last Sunday averaged a 0.17 rating and 251,000 viewers on ESPN. Later that same day, Storm-Lynx Game 3 averaged a 0.19 and 271,000 on ABC, the top audience of the playoffs entering the Finals.
Figures for Friday’s WNBA Finals Game 1 were not immediately available.
Plus: French Open, PBR, F1, PGA Tour
Last Sunday’s opening day of the French Open averaged a 0.32 rating and 480,000 viewers on the NBC broadcast network, down 57% in ratings and 55% in viewership from day one last year, which took place as scheduled in May (0.7, 1.07M). In addition to airing four months later than usual, the telecast had to face NFL games. … Airing adjacent to CBS NFL coverage, the Pro Bull Riders Tour averaged a 1.1 rating and 1.81 million viewers last Sunday — up 22% in ratings and 18% in viewership from the previous NFL-adjacent window two weeks earlier (0.9, 1.55M). The PBR nearly matched the same night’s NASCAR Cup Series race on NBCSN (1.15, 1.97M). … Last Sunday’s Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix on ESPN2 (0.31, 517K) slipped 6% in ratings but increased 1% in viewership over last year (0.33, 511K). … The PGA Tour Puntacana Corrales Cup averaged a 0.45 and 689,000 last Saturday and a 0.50 and 781,000 last Sunday on NBC. Ratings for last year’s tournament were not available.
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 9.29]
