National and regional sports networks saw strong numbers for the opening week of the MLB season. ESPN drew 3.62 million viewers Sunday night for the Cardinals' 4-3 win over the Cubs on "SNB." Sunday's game marked a 25% viewership increase from '16, when ESPN drew 2.89 million viewers for Mets-Royals, a World Series rematch. FS1 for its MLB season opener on Wednesday night -- Yankees-Rays -- markrf the best opener yet for the cable net. Meanwhile, several RSNs hit multiyear highs for Opening Day. Across all RSNs, MLB openers were up 14% compared to last year. SNY drew a 4.7 local rating in N.Y. for Wednesday night's Braves-Mets game, which featured Braves P Bartolo Colon going up against his former team for the first time. The game was the RSN's highest-rated telecast since June '09. Earlier in the week, SNY's Monday afternoon Opening Day telecast of Braves-Mets posted a 4.36 local rating, the highest-rated opener for SNY since '08. YES Network drew a 4.5 local rating in N.Y. on Sunday afternoon for Yankees-Rays, marking the net's highest-rated opener in three years. Finally, FS Southeast earned a 3.3 local rating last Friday for the Yankees-Braves exhibition at SunTrust Park, marking the highest-rated Spring Training game for the net since '02.
SOUTHERN COMFORT: ESPN drew 3.827 million viewers Sunday night (6:00pm ET start) for South Carolina's win over Mississippi State in the NCAA Women's Tournament championship game. That number is up from 2.972 million viewers for UConn's blowout win over Syracuse last year, which aired on a Tuesday night. Sunday's game peaked at 5.34 million viewers from 8:00-8:15pm. Meanwhile, MSU's upset over UConn on Friday night drew 2.76 million viewers on ESPN2, marking the net's most-watched semifinal in four years.
The chart below lists final audience figures from select recent sports telecasts.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
NCAA Men's Basketball: Final Four:
North Carolina-Oregon |
4/1
|
CBS
|
8:55p-11:29pm
|
10.4
|
18,825
|
NCAA Men's Basketball: Final Four:
Gonzaga-South Carolina |
4/1
|
CBS
|
6:00-8:15pm
|
8.5
|
14,683
|
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series:
STP 500 (Martinsville) |
4/2
|
FS1
|
2:00-6:14pm
|
2.3
|
3,963
|
NCAA Women's Basketball Championship:
South Carolina-Mississippi State |
4/2
|
ESPN
|
6:11-8:17pm
|
2.3
|
3,827
|
| MLB: Cubs-Cardinals (opening night) |
4/2
|
ESPN
|
8:29pm-12:13am
|
2.1
|
3,616
|
| NBA: Warriors-Spurs |
3/29
|
ESPN
|
9:31pm-12:04am
|
1.8
|
2,916
|
NCAA Women's Basketball Semifinals:
Mississippi State-UConn |
3/31
|
ESPN2
|
9:54pm-12:26am
|
1.7
|
2,763
|
| PGA Tour: Shell Houston Open: Final Round |
4/2
|
NBC
|
3:00-6:00pm
|
1.7
|
2,581
|
| NBA: Jazz-Spurs |
4/2
|
ABC
|
3:30-6:00pm
|
1.6
|
2,528
|
| NBA: Rockets-Warriors |
3/31
|
ESPN
|
10:36pm-12:58am
|
n/a
|
2,213
|
| NBA: Cavaliers-Bulls |
3/30
|
TNT
|
8:14-10:37pm
|
n/a
|
2,011
|
| PGA Tour: Shell Houston Open: Third Round |
4/1
|
NBC
|
3:00-6:00pm
|
1.3
|
1,957
|
| NBA: Celtics-Knicks |
4/2
|
ABC
|
1:00-3:30pm
|
1.2
|
1,862
|
World Figure Skating Championships:
Ladies Free |
4/1
|
NBC
|
8:00-10:00pm
|
1.2
|
1,819
|
| NBA: Cavaliers-Spurs |
3/27
|
TNT
|
8:14-10:44pm
|
n/a
|
1,803
|
| NBA: Spurs-Thunder |
3/31
|
ESPN
|
8:03-10:36pm
|
n/a
|
1,609
|
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series:
Alpha Energy Solutions 250 (Martinsville) |
4/1
|
Fox
|
3:00-5:30pm
|
1.1
|
1,591
|
NCAA Women's Basketball Semifinals:
South Carolina-Stanford |
3/31
|
ESPN2
|
7:30pm-9:29pm
|
n/a
|
1,497
|
| FIFA World Cup qualifier: U.S.-Panama |
3/28
|
Telemundo
|
10:00pm-12:07am
|
0.8
|
1,416
|
| NHL: Bruins-Blackhawks |
4/2
|
NBC
|
12:00-3:00pm
|
0.8
|
1,198
|
National High School Slam Dunk Contest
& 3-Point Championship (taped) |
4/2
|
CBS
|
3:30-5:00pm
|
0.5
|
802
|
| Liga MX: Tigres UANL-Leon |
4/1
|
Univision
|
8:55-10:57pm
|
0.4
|
739
|
| EPL: Southampton-Bournemouth |
4/1
|
NBC
|
12:30-2:30pm
|
0.5
|
645
|
| "30 for 30": "Phi Slamma Jamma" |
4/1
|
ABC
|
3:30-5:00pm
|
0.4
|
590
|
