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Audience Analysis: "Ballers" Debut Season Marks HBO's Best Half-Hour Show In Six Years

HBO's football-themed "Ballers" averaged 1.7 million viewers for its 10-episode first season, marking the premium cable net's most-watched half-hour program in six years. Sunday's finale averaged a series-low 1.4 million viewers up against the premiere of AMC's "Fear The Walking Dead," which drew 10.1 million viewers. The most-watched episode was the series premiere on June 21 with 2.2 million viewers. No subsequent episode topped 2 million viewers. "Ballers" has already been picked up for a second season in '16. For comparison, HBO's current season of "Hard Knocks" through two hour-long episodes is averaging 829,000 viewers. HBO's eight-episode second season of the hour-long "True Detective," which was the lead-in for many "Ballers" episodes, averaged 2.6 million viewers.

BALLERS: SEASON 1
EPISODE
DATE
VIEWERS (000)
1
6/21
2,162
2
6/28
1,846
3
7/5
1,702
4
7/12
1,591
5
7/19
1,641
6
7/26
1,811
7
8/2
1,560
8
8/9
1,713
9
8/16
1,569
10
8/23
1,395
     

STILL MOVING THE NEEDLE: CBS' final-round coverage of the PGA Tour Wyndham Championship last Sunday, which saw Tiger Woods enter the day in contention for the win, delivered 4.97 million viewers, marking the net's best figure for any PGA Tour final round (non-major) since the finale of the '12 Quicken Loans National, which Woods won. Last Sunday's telecast, which saw Woods fade for a 10th place finish and saw Davis Love III win the event, was up from 1.87 million viewers for Camilo Villegas' win in '14.

HITTING THEIR STRIDE: Ratings for YES Network Yankees game telecasts since the All-Star break are up 31% in the N.Y, market. Eight of the nine most-watched Yankees games this season have come since July 29. Since the All-Star break, unique visitors to YES Network's web site also are up 9%. Meanwhile, CSN Chicago is averaging a 3.2 local rating for Cubs games through Wednesday, up from a 1.5 rating for the complete '14 season. WGN is drawing a 4.7 local rating in Chicago for its Cubs games, up over 50% from last year, while WLS-ABC, in its first year of a five-year deal, is averaged a 4.5 local rating for its 22 Cubs games to date. 

NOTES: Arsenal-Liverpool on Monday drew 119,000 unique visitors and six million live minutes on NBC Sports Live Extra, marking the platform's most-streamed EPL match ever.

The charts below list final TV audience figures for recent sports telecasts.

TELECAST
DATE
NET
TIME (ET)
VIEWERS
(000)
NFL Preseason: Rams-Titans
8/23
Fox
8:11-11:15pm
5,407
PGA Tour: Wyndham Championship:
Final Round
8/23
CBS
3:00-6:01pm
4,967
PGA Tour: Wyndham Championship:
Third Round
8/22
CBS
3:00-6:01pm
4,235
Little League World Series:
Pearland (TX)-Bonita (CA)
8/23
ABC
3:00-5:30pm
1,917
Little League World Series:
Portland (OR)-Bowling Green (KY)
8/22
ABC
3:00-5:30pm
1,350
World Track & Field Championships
8/23
NBC
1:00-2:30pm
1,300
Asics World Series of Beach Volleyball
8/23
NBC
2:30-4:00pm
1,300
Asics World Series of Beach Volleyball
8/22
NBC
4:30-6:00pm
1,000
Liga MX: Club America-Veracruz
8/22
UniMas
6:00-8:11pm
921
PBR: Music City Knockout
8/23
CBS
2:00-3:00pm
880
"Premier League Match of the Day"
8/22
NBC
12:30-2:00pm
837
World Track & Field Championships
8/22
NBC
3:00-4:30pm
728
Cycling: USA Pro Challenge: Stage 7
8/23
NBC
4:00-6:00pm
719
Liga MX: Leon-Chivas de Guadalajara
8/22
Telemundo
9:00-11:04pm
700
Lucas Oil Off Road Racing
8/22
CBS
2:00-3:00pm
507
"World of X Games: Real Moto"
8/22
ABC
2:00-3:00pm
476
"Premier League Download:
Jack to Kinf: Part 2"
8/22
NBC
2:00-3:00pm
412
Golf: U.S. Amateur Championship Match
8/23
Fox
3:00-6:00pm
338
Liga MX: Tijuana-Tigres UANL
8/21
Azteca
10:20pm-12:30am
306
Golf: U.S. Amateur Semifinals
8/22
Fox
3:00-6:00pm
250
TELECAST
DATE
NET
TIME (ET)
VIEWERS
(000)
NFL Preseason: Bills-Browns
8/20
ESPN
8:00-10:55pm
3,874
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series:
Irwin Tools Night Race (Bristol)
8/22
NBCSN
7:58-10:41pm
3,608
NFL Preseason: Packers-Steelers
8/23
NFL Network
1:00-4:16pm
2,578
"NASCAR Sprint Cup Prerace"
8/22
NBCSN
7:24-7:58pm
2,495
NFL Preseason: Seahawks-Chiefs
8/21
NFL Network
8:00-11:10pm
1,601
NFL Preseason: Ravens-Eagles
8/22
NFL Network
7:00-10:27pm
1,574
PGA Tour: Wyndham Championship:
Final Round
8/23
Golf Channel
1:00-2:30pm
1,508
"NASCAR Sprint Cup Postrace"
8/22
NBCSN
10:41-11:30pm
1,508
NASCAR Xfinity Series:
Food City 300 (Bristol)
8/21
NBCSN
7:50-9:42pm
1,256
PGA Tour: Wyndham Championship:
Third Round
8/22
Golf Channel
1:00-2:32pm
1,250

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