Audience Analysis: Record Women's College World Series For ESPN; Liga MX Finale Down

NBC finished with 5.55 million viewers for Game 1 of the Blackhawks-Lightning Stanley Cup Final, marking the net's second-best championship series opener since it acquired NHL rights prior to the '05-06 season. It also marks the best non-OT Game 1 in 18 years. Blackhawks-Lightning Game 1 is up 16% from 4.79 million viewers for Kings-Rangers Game 1 last year, which went to OT. The game led NBC to wins in primetime on Wednesday night among all key adult demos.

OPEN & SHUT: ABC drew 1.16 million viewers for the second race of the Verizon IndyCar Series Chevy Dual in Detroit on Sunday, while Saturday's first race drew 845,000 viewers. Those races marked the last IndyCar telecasts scheduled for ABC this season. Sunday's audience was up from 891,000 viewers last year, while Saturday was down from 1.21 million viewers.

FAST PITCH: ESPN and ESPN2 combined to average 1.2 million viewers for 15 games of the '15 Women's College World Series, marking the nets' most-viewed WCWS on record. The record audience was fueled by an average of 1.91 million viewers for the three-game Florida-Michigan series, which also marked a record for a WCWS Finals. Game 3 of the Finals on Wednesday night averaged 2.33 million viewers on ESPN, marking the second-best WCWS telecast on record (dating back to '90). Four of the top 10 most-viewed WCWS games in the event's history. The WCWS bracket round from May 28-31 averaged 1.06 million viewers, marking the second-best bracket round ever, behind only 1.11 million viewers in '11. 

THE GLORIOUS GAME: Azteca averaged 1.11 million viewers for the finals of the Liga MX Clausura, which saw Santos Laguna take home the Mexican club’s fifth title over Queretaro. That figure is down 48% from 2.16 million viewers for Leon’s two-match win over Pachuca in ’14 on UniMas and Telemundo. Meanwhile, Fox earned 809,000 viewers for the Arsenal-Aston Villa FA Cup last Saturday, down from 880,000 viewers for Arsenal-Hull City in mid-May last year.

NOTES: FS1 drew 3.94 million viewers for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series FedEx 400 from Dover Int'l Speedway, marking the cable net's fifth-best audience on record, and second-best audience yet for a motorsports telecast....ESPN's "Sunday Night Baseball" is averaging 2.14 million viewers after two months of games, up 10% from 1.95 million viewers at the same point last year. The net has had two Yankees-Red Sox "SNB" games this season to date, compared to one at the same point in '14. Meanwhile, "Sunday Night Countdown" leading into the games is averaging 657,000 viewers, up 20%....Spike TV averaged 772,000 viewers for its third "Premier Boxing Champions" telecast on Friday night, up from 569,000 viewers on April 24, but down from 869,000 viewers on March 13. Friday's telecast was highlighted by Amir Khan's decision over Chris Algieri....FS Southwest drew a 4.9 local rating in Dallas-Ft. Worth for the White Sox-Rangers game on Tuesday night, which marked the MLB debut for Rangers 3B Joey Gallo. That figure is the highest Rangers game rating this season to date and the best for the RSN in over a year.

The charts below list final audience figures from recent sports telecasts.