ESPN and ESPN2 ended up averaging 308,000 viewers for the World Cup of Hockey that ended Sept. 29. For a comparison, the NHL regular season on NBCSN for the ’15-16 season averaged 378,000 viewers. ESPN’s best audience during the event was 766,000 for the Canada-U.S. pool play match on Sept. 20. The deciding Game 2 of the Canada-Europe final drew 296,000 viewers on ESPN2. Hurting the domestic numbers was the poor play of the U.S. team, which finished with an 0-3 record. Looking at the audience in Canada, the event saw better reception on Sportsnet. An average of 1.13 million Canadians watched World Cup matches, while an average of 2.15 million viewers watched Team Canada’s matches. The best audience on Sportsnet was the Canada-Russia semifinal on Sept. 24, which drew 3.09 million viewers.
IN THE RED RIVER: Fox Sports over the summer moved this past Saturday’s Oklahoma-Texas football game from broadcast TV to FS1, and the move led a 44% year-over-year drop in viewership and what is likely the lowest audience on record for the Red River Showdown. FS1 drew 2.79 million viewers for the game in the 12:00pm window. ABC, which had the game for the prior 18 years, drew 4.99 million viewers last year. The game drew 4.24 million viewers in ’14. This year’s OU-Texas game also did not register a regular-season college football record on FS1. The ’15 season-opening Michigan-Utah matchup, which aired on a Thursday and featured the debut for coach Jim Harbaugh, still holds that superlative with 2.87 million viewers.
NOTES: “Fox NFL Kickoff” is averaging 1.2 million viewers during its second season in the 11:00am-12:00pm ET window on the broadcast net, up 21% from 987,000 viewers during the same point last season. The show leads into “Fox NFL Sunday,” which is averaging 4.6 million viewers through Week 5, down slightly from 4.8 million viewers last year....Heading into Friday night’s WNBA Finals Game 3, ABC and ESPN2 are averaging 520,000 viewers for the Lynx-Sparks matchup, up 5% from the same point during the Fever-Lynx matchup last season. Game 1 of this year’s series on ABC drew 597,000 viewers, which is the best audience on record for a WNBA Finals opener....Fox’ new MLB-themed series “Pitch” is averaging 3.79 million viewers through three hour-long Thursday episodes in the 9:00pm ET window.
The chart below lists final audience figures for select recent sports telecats.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
| NFL: Bengals-Cowboys (80%) |
10/9
|
CBS
|
4:25-7:45pm
|
12.1
|
21,305
|
| "SNF": Giants-Packers |
10/9
|
NBC
|
8:31-11:22pm
|
9.3
|
16,622
|
| NFL: (singleheader) |
10/9
|
Fox
|
1:03-4:16pm
|
9.4
|
16,452
|
| NFL: (regional) |
10/9
|
CBS
|
1:03-4:23pm
|
9.0
|
15,212
|
| "MNF": Giants-Vikings |
10/3
|
ESPN
|
8:15-11:34pm
|
8.0
|
13,167
|
| "TNF": Cardinals-49ers |
10/6
|
CBS/NFL Net
|
8:27-11:24pm
|
7.4
|
12,073
|
| "Football Night in America" |
10/9
|
NBC
|
7:30-8:22pm
|
4.8
|
8,307
|
| NL Wild Card: Giants-Mets |
10/5
|
ESPN
|
8:00-11:27pm
|
4.5
|
7,420
|
College football:
Tennessee-Texas A&M |
10/8
|
CBS
|
3:30-7:00pm
|
3.9
|
6,553
|
| NLDS: Cubs-Giants: Game 1 |
10/7
|
FS1
|
9:25-11:55pm
|
3.2
|
5,697
|
| College football: FSU-Miami |
10/8
|
ABC
|
8:07pm-12:14am
|
3.2
|
5,540
|
| ALDS: Indians-Red Sox: Game 1 |
10/6
|
TBS
|
8:00-11:47pm
|
2.9
|
4,663
|
| NLDS: Cubs-Giants: Game 2 |
10/8
|
MLB Net
|
8:09-11:16pm
|
2.5
|
4,605
|
College football:
Alabama-Arkansas |
10/8
|
ESPN
|
7:02-10:46pm
|
2.5
|
4,444
|
| AL Wild Card: Blue Jays-Orioles |
10/4
|
TBS
|
8:00-11:41pm
|
2.6
|
4,198
|
| "Fox NFL Sunday" |
10/9
|
Fox
|
12:00-1:00pm
|
2.6
|
4,196
|
| "The NFL Today" |
10/9
|
CBS
|
12:00-1:03pm
|
2.5
|
3,877
|
College football:
Notre Dame-N.C. State^ |
10/8
|
ABC
|
12:01-4:03pm
|
2.4
|
3,720
|
| College football: (regional) |
10/8
|
ABC
|
4:03-7:06pm
|
2.0
|
3,252
|
NASCAR Sprint Cup:
Bank of America 500 (Charlotte)* |
10/9
|
NBC
|
12:15-4:00pm
|
2.1
|
3,221
|
College Football:
Indiana-Ohio State |
10/8
|
ESPN
|
3:30-7:02pm
|
1.9
|
3,218
|
| ALDS: Indians-Red Sox: Game 2 |
10/7
|
TBS
|
4:39-8:02pm
|
1.9
|
2,915
|
| College football: Oklahoma-Texas |
10/8
|
FS1
|
11:58am-4:01pm
|
n/a
|
2,788
|
College football:
Washington-Oregon |
10/8
|
Fox
|
7:35-11:04pm
|
1.1
|
1,837
|
Soccer friendly:
Mexico-New Zealand |
10/8
|
Univision
|
6:23-9:00pm
|
0.9
|
1,617
|
| "Fox NFL Kickoff" |
10/9
|
Fox
|
11:00am-12:00pm
|
0.8
|
1,295
|
| Formula E: Hong Kong (taped) |
10/9
|
Fox
|
4:43-5:43pm
|
0.7
|
1,193
|
| "Fox College Saturday" |
10/8
|
Fox
|
7:00-7:35pm
|
0.6
|
993
|
| Red Bull Global Rallycross (taped) |
10/9
|
NBC
|
4:15-5:00pm
|
0.6
|
898
|
Breeders' Cup Challenge Series:
Keeneland |
10/9
|
NBC
|
5:00-6:00pm
|
0.6
|
880
|
Breeders' Cup Challenge Series:
Keeneland |
10/8
|
NBC
|
5:00-6:00pm
|
0.6
|
863
|
"Red Bull Signature Series:
Crandon World Cup" |
10/8
|
NBC
|
3:30-5:00pm
|
0.4
|
602
|
| WNBA Finals: Sparks-Lynx: Game 1 |
10/9
|
ABC
|
3:00-5:08pm
|
0.4
|
597
|
| "Red Bull Signature Series: Mint 400" |
10/8
|
NBC
|
2:00-3:30pm
|
0.4
|
511
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
NOTES: ^ = Game had weather delays. * = Race was rained out Saturday night, run on Sunday and simulcast on NBCSN.
