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Audience Analysis: College World Series Up From Recent Years; Nitro World Games Down

ESPN averaged 1.89 million viewers for Florida’s two-game sweep of LSU in the College World Series, marking the CWS Finals’ best audience since Vanderbilt beat Virginia in three games in ’14. Last year, the three-game Coastal Carolina-Arizona series averaged 1.09 million viewers, but that included a Game 3 that aired on ESPNU on a Thursday afternoon due to weather delays in Omaha. Florida-LSU Game 1 on Monday was the best for a CWS Finals opener since South Carolina-Florida in ’11. Game 2 on Tuesday night was the best second CWS Finals game since Arizona-South Carolina in ’12. Digitally, WatchESPN had its best CWS on record.

COLLEGE WORLD SERIES FINALS AUDIENCE TREND
YEAR
MATCHUP
GAMES
VIEWERS (000)
'17
Florida-LSU
2
1,889
'16
Coastal Carolina-Arizona
3
1,085
'15
Virginia-Vanderbilt
3
1,412
'14
Vanderbilt-Virginia
3
2,005


NOTES
: NBC drew 971,000 viewers for the Nitro World Games on Saturday night, down 28% from the event last year, which aired in mid-July….FS1 on Monday night drew 398,000 viewers for the debut of the BIG3 basketball league on tape delay. The audience ranks it among FS1’s top 10 basketball telecasts all-time. For a comparison, FS1 in March drew 363,000 viewers for the Villanova-Seton Hall Big East Tournament semifinals.

The chart below lists final audience figures from select recent sports telecasts.

TELECAST
DATE
NET
TIME (ET)
RAT.
VIEWERS
(000)
PGA Tour: Travelers Championship:
Final Round
6/25
CBS
3:00-6:30pm
2.3
3,500
NBA Draft
6/22
ESPN
7:33pm-12:23am
2.2
3,420
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series:
Toyota/Save Mart 350 (Sonoma)
6/25
FS1
2:59-6:22pm
2.0
3,240
"NBA Draft Show"
6/22
ESPN
7:00-7:33pm
1.7
2,565
PGA Tour: Travelers Championship:
Third Round
6/24
CBS
3:00-6:00pm
1.4
2,108
MLB: (regional)
6/24
Fox
7:12-10:30pm
1.2
1,920
MLB: Pirates-Cardinals
6/25
ESPN
8:00-11:21pm
1.0
1,468
CWS pool play: Florida-TCU
6/24
ESPN
8:00-11:01pm
0.8
1,327
CWS pool play: LSU-Florida State
6/21
ESPN
7:00-10:25pm
n/a
1,220
CWS pool play: LSU-Oregon State
6/19
ESPN
7:00-10:48pm
n/a
1,211
CWS pool play: LSU-Oregon State
6/24
ESPN
3:00-5:51pm
0.8
1,197
Track & Field:
U.S. Outdoor Championships
6/25
NBC
4:00-6:00pm
0.8
1,118
CWS pool play: Florida-TCU
6/23
ESPN
8:00-11:51pm
n/a
1,049
CWS pool play: LSU-Oregon
6/23
ESPN
3:00-6:18pm
n/a
1,044
Track & Field:
U.S. Outdoor Championships
6/24
NBC
4:00-6:00pm
0.7
1,020
Action Sports: Nitro World Games
6/24
NBC
8:00-11:00pm
0.6
971
Sailing: America's Cup
6/25
NBC
1:00-3:00pm
0.6
928
Sailing: America's Cup
6/24
NBC
1:00-2:30pm
0.6
827
FIFA Confederations Cup:
Mexico-Russia
6/24
Fox
11:30am-1:30pm
0.5
780
Major League Fishing (taped)
6/24
CBS
2:00-3:00pm
0.5
676
"World of X Games: Real BMX"
6/24
ABC
2:00-3:00pm
0.4
562
"30 for 30": "Celtics/Lakers" (Part 3)
6/24
ABC
3:00-5:00pm
0.4
562
FIFA Confederations Cup:
Germany-Cameroon
6/25
Fox
11:30am-1:30pm
0.4
546
Lucas Oil Off Road
Racing Series (taped)
6/25
CBS
2:00-3:00pm
0.4
481
MLS: Red Bulls-NYCFC
6/24
Fox
1:30-3:30pm
0.3
467
"World of X Games:
Boise Park qualifying"
6/25
ABC
3:30-4:30pm
0.3
376


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