NBC Golf came out of the PGA Tour's Florida Swing with viewership up for the Tour on both its broadcast channel and Golf Channel. PGA Tour telecasts on NBC are averaging 2.64 million viewers to date, up 28% from the same point last season (2.06 million). Golf Channel is averaging 222,000 viewers for its telecasts, up 9% from 203,000 last year. The four events of the Florida Swing (Honda Classic, WGC-Cadillac Championship, Valspar Championship, Arnold Palmer Invitational) averaged 2.49 million viewers on NBC, up 8% from last year, while Golf Channel for the same events averaged 239,000 viewers, up 7%. NBC's Sunday coverage of the WGC-Cadillac Championship was the net's most-viewed PGA Tour final round since The Players Championship in May last year. NBC also drew its second-best final round audience on record for the Valspar Championship (dating back to '03).
AUTO TUNE: Fox drew 6.81 million viewers for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Auto Club 500 last Sunday afternoon from Fontana, down 6% from 7.25 million viewers for the same race on the same weekend last year. Both races had competition from the NCAA Tournament. FS1 on Saturday afternoon drew 1.46 million viewers for the Xfinity Series race from Fontana, up 4% from 1.41 million viewers last year. That marks the first year-over-year gain for the Xfinity Series this season to date.
HAVE A CIGAR: ESPN on Tuesday afternoon drew 863,000 viewers for the Rays' exhibition against the Cuban national team in Havana, marking the most-viewed MLB preseason game -- Spring Training or exhibition -- on any net since '04. The audience peaked in the third inning at 1.15 million viewers during Karl Ravech's interview with President Obama.
The chart below lists final audience figures from recent sports telecasts. Figures for many CBS telecasts were unavailable at presstime.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series:
Auto Club 500 (Fontana) |
3/20
|
Fox
|
3:45-6:45pm
|
4.0
|
6,809
|
NCAA Tournament: Second Round:
Kansas-UConn |
3/19
|
CBS
|
8:01-10:18pm
|
3.6
|
6,208
|
| NBA: Warriors-Spurs |
3/19
|
ABC
|
8:33-11:02pm
|
3.1
|
5,171
|
NCAA Tournament: First Round:
Stephen F. Austin-WVU |
3/18
|
CBS
|
7:00-9:49pm
|
3.0
|
4,960
|
NCAA Tournament: Second Round:
North Carolina-Providence |
3/19
|
TBS
|
9:30-11:53pm
|
2.3
|
4,055
|
NCAA Tournament: First Round:
Indiana-UT Chattanooga |
3/17
|
CBS
|
7:00-9:36pm
|
2.6
|
3,959
|
NCAA Tournament: First Round:
Kentucky-Stony Brook |
3/17
|
CBS
|
9:50pm-12:07am
|
2.4
|
3,710
|
NCAA Tournament: First Round:
North Carolina-Florida Gulf Coast |
3/17
|
TBS
|
7:04-9:37pm
|
2.2
|
3,588
|
| "Fox NASCAR Sunday" |
3/20
|
Fox
|
3:00-3:45pm
|
2.0
|
3,371
|
NCAA Tournament: Second Round:
Wisconsin-Xavier |
3/20
|
TNT
|
8:28-10:47pm
|
1.8
|
3,089
|
NCAA Tournament: Second Round:
Maryland-Hawaii |
3/20
|
TBS
|
7:00-9:31pm
|
1.7
|
2,889
|
PGA Tour: Arnold Palmer Invitational:
Final Round |
3/20
|
NBC
|
2:30-6:00pm
|
1.9
|
2,880
|
NCAA Tournament: First Round:
Wisconsin-Pitt |
3/18
|
TNT
|
6:46-8:56pm
|
n/a
|
2,772
|
NCAA Tournament: Second Round:
Oregon-St. Joseph's |
3/20
|
TBS
|
9:45pm-12:15am
|
1.7
|
2,756
|
NCAA Tournament: First Round:
Wichita State-Arizona |
3/17
|
TNT
|
9:32pm-12:04am
|
n/a
|
2,609
|
NCAA Tournament: Second Round:
Texas A&M-Northern Iowa |
3/20
|
truTV
|
7:51-10:56pm
|
n/a
|
2,475
|
NCAA Tournament: Second Round:
Syracuse-Middle Tennessee |
3/20
|
TNT
|
6:00-8:15pm
|
n/a
|
2,388
|
NCAA Tournament: Second Round:
Virginia-Butler |
3/19
|
TBS
|
7:00-9:17pm
|
n/a
|
2,335
|
| "NBA Countdown" |
3/19
|
ABC
|
8:00-8:33pm
|
1.4
|
2,161
|
PGA Tour: Arnold Palmer Invitational:
Third Round |
3/19
|
NBC
|
2:30-6:15pm
|
1.1
|
1,654
|
| Liga MX: Club America-Leon |
3/19
|
Univision
|
6:55-8:56pm
|
0.7
|
1,330
|
| Liga MX: Monterrey-Chivas |
3/19
|
Univision
|
8:56-11:13pm
|
0.7
|
1,286
|
| EPL: Manchester City-Manchester United |
3/20
|
NBC
|
12:00-2:00pm
|
0.8
|
1,155
|
| "EPL Goal Zone" |
3/20
|
NBC
|
2:00-2:30pm
|
0.5
|
846
|
FIS World Cup Final:
Women's Slalom (taped) |
3/19
|
NBC
|
1:00-2:30pm
|
0.4
|
613
|
| "World of X Games: Oslo 2016" |
3/19
|
ABC
|
3:00-5:00pm
|
0.4
|
540
|
| Bundesliga: Frankfurt-Hannover |
3/19
|
Fox
|
1:30-3:30pm
|
0.2
|
335
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
