NASCAR and Sunday Night Baseball are both on winning streaks compared to 2019; a brawl-filled game gave NBCSN its largest NHL audience in more than a month; and more.
NASCAR Kansas viewership best since 2016
Last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race from Kansas averaged a 1.6 rating and 2.74 million viewers, the largest audience for the spring race there since 2016 (3.14M). Ratings increased 78% and viewership 86% from last year’s race, which took place on a Thursday in July (0.9, 1.47M). Compared to the 2019 race, which aired as scheduled but on a Saturday night, ratings and viewership increased 33% and 26% respectively (from 1.2, 2.18M).
Kansas was the third-straight race to increase over 2019. Keep in mind it was the first edition of the decade-old race to take place on a Sunday.
Brawl lifts NBCSN to top NHL audience since March
Wednesday’s Capitals-Rangers NHL regular season game, a highly-anticipated game that featured numerous fights upon the opening face-off, averaged 423,000 viewers on NBCSN — the network’s largest NHL audience since March 24 (Sabres-Penguins: 449K). For the season, it ranks as the 11th-most watched game on NBCSN, with nine of the top 11 coming from the Eastern Division. The Avalanche-Sharks nightcap averaged 202,000.
The previous Wednesday, NBCSN pulled 316,000 for Avalanche-Golden Knights and 306,000 for Blues-Wild. No other game on NBCSN the past ten days cracked the 200,000 mark.
On the NBC broadcast network, last Sunday’s Lightning-Red Wings game averaged a 0.34 and 562,000 — marking the lowest rated NHL game ever on broadcast television.
Sunday Night Baseball up from ’19 again
Mets-Phillies averaged a 0.8 rating and 1.37 million viewers on the latest edition of ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball, flat in ratings and up 11% in viewership from the fifth Sunday night game in 2019 (4/28/19 Indians-Astros: 0.8, 1.23M). Four straight Sunday night games have increased from 2019. Compared to the fifth such game of last year’s delayed, shortened season, ratings were flat and viewership declined 1% (from 8/23/20 Phillies-Braves: 0.8, 1.38M).
In other action, Dodgers-Cubs averaged 771,000 viewers on ESPN Wednesday night — up 31% from Astros-Twins in ’19 (588K). Tuesday’s Star Wars-themed broadcast of Astros-Yankees had 740,000. FS1 pulled a 0.14 rating (-36%) and 251,000 viewers (-20%) for Indians-White Sox last Saturday and a 0.21 (-28%) and 386,000 (-8%) for Cubs-Braves the Wednesday prior.
Plus: PGA Tour, F1, IndyCar, Man U protest
The PGA Tour Tampa Bay tournament posted its smallest final round audience in a decade last Sunday, averaging a 1.4 rating (-13%) and 2.20 million viewers (-8%) on CBS. Third round coverage the previous day had a 0.9 (-10%) and 1.33 million (-8%). … Last Sunday’s Formula 1 Portuguese Grand Prix on ESPN averaged the seventh-largest F1 audience ever on cable (902K), with two of the top ten coming in the first three races this season. Ratings jumped 61% (to 0.53) and viewership 58% from last year on ESPN2. F1 is averaging more viewers (903K) than IndyCar (719K) despite the latter having two races on broadcast. … Speaking of IndyCar, last weekend’s Texas doubleheader averaged 391,000 on NBCSN (363K on Saturday and 411K on Sunday). The last time the race aired on NBCSN (2019), it averaged 373,000. Figures include streaming data not tracked by Nielsen. … NBCSN averaged 552,000 viewers for breaking news coverage of last Sunday’s protest by Manchester United supporters, the network’s largest audience — for any program — in more than a month (3/14 Tottenham-Arsenal: 576K).
