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
|
