The Women’s College World Series final opened with a record Game 1 audience. Plus: a season-high for MLB; a rebound of the U.S. Women’s Open; a steep decline for Simone Biles’ latest win.
WCWS final opens with largest Game 1 audience on record
Tuesday’s Game 1 of the Women’s College World Series final (FSU-Oklahoma) averaged 1.86 million viewers on ESPN, marking the largest audience on record for Game 1 of the best-of-three championship series. FSU’s win, which peaked at 2.2 million from 10-10:15 PM ET, increased 37% from Game 1 of the 2019 series (UCLA-Oklahoma: 1.34M).
The previous high for a Game 1 was 1.63 million for Oklahoma-Florida in 2017. Overall, Game 1 delivered the largest audience for a WCWS game since Game 3 of the 2015 final (Michigan-Florida: 2.27M) and the eight-largest audience in tournament history.
While no match for Tuesday’s NBA playoff games on TNT — Hawks-Sixers and Clippers-Jazz both averaged 3.62 million, per John Ourand of Sports Business Journal — FSU-Oklahoma comfortably outdrew the night’s Stanley Cup playoff doubleheader on NBCSN (Lightning-Hurricanes: 905K; Golden Knights-Avalanche: 1.20M, per Ourand). [ESPN PR 6.9, Ourand/Twitter 6.9]
Sox-Yanks sets MLB season-high on FOX; ESPN’s SNB up 7% from ’19
Regional Major League Baseball on FOX (Red Sox-Yankees, Cubs-Giants or Dodgers-Braves) averaged 2.68 million viewers last Saturday night, the largest audience of the MLB season. Viewership increased 5% from the comparable 2019 window, which also featured Red Sox-Yankees (2.55M).
Another Red Sox-Yankees game averaged 1.79 million on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball the following night, down 9% from the same matchup in 2019 (1.97M). Sunday Night Baseball is now averaging 1.62 million viewers this season, up 7% from the same point in 2019 (1.51M). [LA Times 6.8; Spoiler TV 6.9; ESPN PR 6.9]
U.S. Women’s Open up big from last year’s months-delayed event
The final round of the U.S. Women’s Open averaged 1.17 million viewers on NBC last Sunday, the tournament’s largest audience since the final round in 2016 (1.31M) and the most-watched women’s golf event overall since the final round of the 2019 Women’s British Open (1.19M). Compared to the last time the event aired as scheduled in the summer — 2019 — final round viewership jumped 61% from 728,000 on FOX.
NBC left the event prior to a sudden death playoff to accommodate the U.S. Gymnastics Championships.
The full four-round tournament averaged 600,000 viewers on NBC and Golf Channel, up 62% from last year — when it was delayed until December and concluded on a Monday — and the largest audience for the event since 2016. [NBC Sports PR]
Despite Olympic year, steep drop for Gymnastics Championships
Coverage of the women’s finals at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships, won by Simone Biles, averaged 2.12 million viewers on NBC Sunday night — the smallest audience for the event since 2014 (2.0M). Viewership fell 24% from the last time the event took place in 2019 (2.78M) and 61% from the last Olympic year in 2016 (5.4M). Despite the steep declines, the telecast nearly doubled its aforementioned lead-in from the U.S. Women’s Open (1.17M). [SpoilerTV]
