The NFL-fueled NHRA nearly matched NASCAR at one of its most famous tracks over the weekend. Plus: ESPN neared a viewership high for Thursday night college football; low marks for the Premier Lacrosse League final; a modest drop for day one of the Presidents Cup.
NFL-boosted NHRA nearly matches NASCAR at Bristol
Airing adjacent to FOX NFL coverage, NHRA Nationals from Reading, Pa., averaged a 1.0 rating and 1.68 million viewers on FOX last Sunday — the largest NHRA audience ever on any network, live or taped. The previous high was 1.62 million for a tape-delayed window in 2017. The telecast, which peaked with more than two million viewers, came to within 100,000 viewers of the previous day’s NASCAR Cup Series event from Bristol on USA Network and outdrew the race in adults 18-49.
The NASCAR race averaged a 1.1 and 1.78 million, marking the least-watched race of the season (excluding makeup races) and the least-watched at Bristol — fall or spring, including makeup races — in at least 20 years.
West Virginia-Virginia Tech nears high for ESPN
Thursday’s West Virginia-Virginia Tech college football game averaged a 0.9 rating and 1.60 million viewers on ESPN, trailing only Mississippi-Mississippi State last Thanksgiving (2.06M) as the network’s most-watched college game opposite the NFL since 2017 (excluding bowls). In addition to competition from Thursday Night Football, the game also faced the most-watched Major League Baseball game of the season on FOX.
As one would expect, far fewer tuned into the competing Coastal Carolina-Georgia State game on ESPN2 (0.13, 224K) or Chattanooga-Illinois on BTN (0.10, 176K).
Premier Lacrosse League final weak draw on ABC
Last weekend’s Premier Lacrosse League final (Chaos-Waterdogs) averaged a 0.15 rating and 225,000 viewers on ABC, down a quarter in ratings and about a third in viewership from last year’s final on NBC, which aired in an earlier timeslot and did not fully overlap with NFL games (0.20, ~333K). The match was the least-watched sporting event of the weekend on broadcast television and trailed the competing Game 4 of the WNBA Finals on ESPN (0.22, 396K).
A re-air of the final on Tuesday night, which aired in place of what would have been a Game 5 of the WNBA Finals, averaged 110,000 viewers on ESPN.
Presidents Cup opens with modest dip
The first day of golf’s Presidents Cup averaged 760,000 viewers on Golf Channel Thursday, down 6% from the last time the tournament was held in the United States five years ago (805K). Compared to the first day of the previous Presidents Cup in 2019 — which took place in Australia during the overnight hours Eastern time — viewership slipped a fraction of a percent from 762,000.
(Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 9.20, 9.23, Programming Insider 9.23)
