Fox drew 6.63 million viewers for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race from Phoenix last Sunday in the 3:45pm ET window. While that audience was the most-viewed sports telecast for the fourth straight weekend, it also marked four straight year-over-year declines for Sprint Cup races to start the season. Last year’s spring race at Phoenix, also the fourth race of the season, drew 6.97 million viewers. Fox drew 1.82 million viewers for the Xfinity Series race on Saturday afternoon, down sharply from 2.5 million viewers last year. Meanwhile, the Verizon IndyCar Series began last Sunday in the 12:30pm window from St. Petersburg on ABC. That race drew 1.39 million viewers, marking the best IndyCar season opener since ABC drew 1.84 million viewers in ’11. Last year’s opener from St. Pete, which aired two weeks later in March, drew 891,000 viewers on ABC.
GO BIG OR GO HOME: Fox on Saturday aired the Big East Championship for the first time on the broadcast net, drawing 1.37 million viewers for Seton Hall-Villanova. That game marked Fox’ best college hoops audience for the ’15-16 season. Last year’s Big East title game aired on FS1, drawing 414,000 viewers for Xavier-Villanova.
The chart below lists final audience figures from recent sports telecasts. Figures for CBS were unavailable at presstime.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series:
Good Sam 500 (Phoenix) |
3/13
|
Fox
|
3:45-6:45pm
|
4.0
|
6,633
|
| "Fox NASCAR Sunday" |
3/13
|
Fox
|
3:00-3:45pm
|
2.1
|
3,405
|
| PGA Tour: Valspar Championship: Final Round |
3/13
|
NBC
|
3:00-6:30pm
|
2.0
|
2,949
|
| Liga MX: Chivas-Club America |
3/13
|
UniMas
|
9:20-11:37pm
|
1.3
|
2,914
|
| SEC Championship: Kentucky-Texas A&M |
3/13
|
ESPN
|
12:59-3:23pm
|
1.9
|
2,893
|
| ACC Championship: North Carolina-Virginia |
3/12
|
ESPN
|
8:55-10:58pm
|
n/a
|
2,813
|
| NBA: Thunder-Spurs |
3/12
|
ABC
|
8:33-11:05pm
|
1.7
|
2,568
|
| NBA: Cavaliers-Clippers |
3/13
|
ABC
|
3:33-6:00pm
|
1.6
|
2,543
|
| Big 12 Championship: Kansas-West Virginia |
3/12
|
ESPN
|
6:07-8:23pm
|
n/a
|
2,420
|
| SEC Semifinal: Kentucky-Georgia |
3/12
|
ESPN
|
3:17-5:29pm
|
n/a
|
1,968
|
NASCAR Xfinity Series:
Axalta Faster. Tougher. Brighter 200 (Phoenix) |
3/12
|
Fox
|
2:45-4:45pm
|
1.2
|
1,821
|
| PGA Tour: Valspar Championship: Third Round |
3/12
|
NBC
|
3:00-6:00pm
|
1.2
|
1,791
|
| "NBA Countdown" |
3/12
|
ABC
|
8:00-8:33pm
|
1.2
|
1,784
|
| NBA: Cavaliers-Lakers |
3/10
|
TNT
|
10:40pm-1:09am
|
n/a
|
1,778
|
| "Bracketology" |
3/13
|
ESPN
|
7:00-9:01pm
|
n/a
|
1,542
|
| NBA: Clippers-Thunder |
3/9
|
ESPN
|
9:34pm-12:04am
|
n/a
|
1,534
|
| AAC Championship: UConn- Memphis |
3/13
|
ESPN
|
3:23-5:15pm
|
n/a
|
1,532
|
| "30 for 30": "Fantastic Lies" |
3/13
|
ESPN
|
9:01-11:00pm
|
n/a
|
1,474
|
| NBA: Bulls-Spurs |
3/10
|
TNT
|
8:14-10:40pm
|
n/a
|
1,469
|
Verizon IndyCar Series:
Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg |
3/13
|
ABC
|
12:30-3:14pm
|
1.0
|
1,391
|
| Big East Championship: Seton Hall-Villanova |
3/12
|
Fox
|
5:30-7:45pm
|
0.9
|
1,372
|
| NHL: Penguins-Rangers |
3/13
|
NBC
|
12:30-3:00pm
|
0.8
|
1,101
|
| Liga MX: Cruz Azul-Puebla |
3/12
|
Univision
|
5:55-8:00pm
|
0.5
|
871
|
| "30 For 30": "The Prince of Pennsylvania" |
3/12
|
ABC
|
4:00-5:00pm
|
0.6
|
784
|
| "NHL Live" |
3/13
|
NBC
|
12:00-12:30pm
|
0.6
|
771
|
| EPL: Tottenham Hotspur-Arsenal (re-air) |
3/12
|
NBC
|
12:30-2:30pm
|
0.4
|
554
|
| "World of X Games: Real Snow 2016" |
3/12
|
ABC
|
3:00-4:00pm
|
0.4
|
486
|
