The Gold Cup quarterfinals held up well opposite the Olympics, plus more sports TV ratings news.
Gold Cup quarters hold up well despite Olympic competition
Despite facing the Olympics, last Saturday’s Mexico-Honduras Gold Cup quarterfinal averaged 3.09 million viewers on Univision and TUDN — up 3% from El Tri’s 2019 quarterfinal (2.99M). It trails only Mexico-El Salvador the previous Sunday (3.79M) as the most-watched match of the tournament.
On Sunday, United States-Jamaica averaged 1.61 million on Univision and TUDN — about even with the USMNT’s 2019 quarterfinal against Curacao (1.6M). The same match averaged 705,000 on FS1 (including pre-match coverage), down 55% from that ’19 match (1.55M).
NHL Draft sees bump on ESPN2
Facing the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics, the first round of the NHL Draft averaged 268,000 on ESPN2 Friday night — up 3% from last year, when the event aired in November on NBCSN (259K). Compared to the 2019 draft, which aired on NBCSN in June, viewership declined 27% from 365,000.
Two nights earlier, the Seattle Kraken expansion draft averaged a substantially stronger 637,000 on ESPN2. The previous expansion draft — for the Golden Knights in 2017 — was part of an NHL Awards telecast that averaged 595,000 on NBCSN.
Sunday Night Baseball hits season-low vs. Olympics
Facing the Olympics, White Sox-Brewers averaged 828,000 viewers on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball last weekend — down 38% from Nationals-Braves in 2019 (1.33M) and the least-watched Sunday night game this season. Yankees-Red Sox averaged 364,000 on TBS earlier in the day, down 13% from ’19 (Rockies-Yankees: 416K).
Another Yankees-Red Sox game drew 470,000 on FS1 the previous day, up 74% from ’19 (Mets-Giants: 270K), while the Rays-Indians nightcap drew 344,000.
Going back to last week, ESPN averaged 509,000 for Cubs-Cardinals last Wednesday night and 776,000 for the same matchup two nights earlier (+17%).
PGA Tour sees dip vs. Olympics
Facing the Olympics, last Sunday’s final round of the PGA Tour Twin Cities Open averaged 1.93 million viewers on CBS — down 26% from last year (2.60M) and down 15% from the inaugural edition in 2019 (2.28M). Despite the Olympic competition, the telecast does not rank as the least-watched final round on broadcast this season, clocking in ahead of the John Deere Classic two weeks earlier (1.52M) and the Byron Nelson back in May (1.84M).
[Nielsen estimates from Univision, CBS, Spoiler TV a, b, c, d, e]
