It was a close race in Week 3 for the most-viewed college football game. CBS’ Tennessee-Florida nail-biter took the top spot with 5.13 million viewers. That was just ahead of 5.06 million viewers for ABC’s Clemson-Louisville matchup in primetime, and ahead of 4.91 million viewers for Fox’ Texas-USC overtime game in primetime.
THE ULTIMATE DRIVERS: NBC drew 1.87 million viewers for the final round of the PGA Tour BMW Championship last Sunday, as Marc Leishman won by five strokes. Rickie Fowler, Jason Day, Matt Kuchar and Jordan Spieth all finished in the top 10 as well. That figure is up from 1.16 million viewers for Dustin Johnson’s three-stroke win over Paul Casey, and up from 1.8 million viewers in ’15, when Day won by six strokes.
EARLY RISERS: ESPN and ESPN2 are averaging 224,00 viewers for WNBA Playoff games heading into the start of the Finals on Sunday, up 6% from last year. The nets also have seen gains in the adults 18-49 demo (+8%). ESPN and ESPN2 are coming off the their least-viewed WNBA regular season on record.
The chart below lists final audience figures from select recent sports telecasts.
TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
NFL: Cowboys-Broncos (81%) |
9/17
|
Fox
|
4:00-7:00pm
|
14.3
|
25,969
|
"SNF": Packers-Falcons |
9/17
|
NBC
|
8:36-11:28pm
|
11.3
|
20,237
|
NFL: (single) |
9/17
|
CBS
|
1:00-4:00pm
|
8.4
|
14,515
|
NFL: (regional) |
9/17
|
Fox
|
1:00-4:00pm
|
7.9
|
13,515
|
"MNF": Saints-Vikings |
9/11
|
ESPN
|
6:55-10:12pm
|
6.8
|
11,401
|
"MNF": Chargers-Broncos |
9/11
|
ESPN
|
10:12pm-1:21am
|
6.0
|
9,948
|
"TNF": Texans-Bengals |
9/14
|
NFL Net
|
8:26-11:28pm
|
4.9
|
8,095
|
"Fox NFL Sunday" |
9/17
|
Fox
|
12:00-1:00pm
|
3.3
|
5,201
|
College football: Tennessee-Florida |
9/16
|
CBS
|
3:30-7:15pm
|
3.2
|
5,133
|
College football: Clemson-Louisville |
9/16
|
ABC
|
8:07-11:51pm
|
3.0
|
5,064
|
College football: Texas-USC |
9/16
|
Fox
|
8:41pm-12:44am
|
2.9
|
4,912
|
"Football Night in America" |
9/17
|
NBC
|
7:30-8:26pm
|
2.9
|
4,798
|
"NFL Total Access Postgame" |
9/14
|
NFL Net
|
11:30pm-12:00am
|
2.1
|
3,320
|
College football: UCLA-Memphis |
9/16
|
ABC
|
12:01-4:05pm
|
2.2
|
3,238
|
"The NFL Today" |
9/17
|
CBS
|
12:00-1:00pm
|
2.0
|
3,045
|
College football: Army-Ohio State |
9/16
|
Fox
|
4:45-7:30pm
|
1.5
|
2,506
|
College football:
LSU-Mississippi State |
9/16
|
ESPN
|
7:04-10:18pm
|
1.5
|
2,498
|
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series:
Tales of the Turtles 400 (Chicagoland) |
9/17
|
NBCSN
|
3:16-5:59pm
|
1.4
|
2,311
|
College football: Wisconsin-BYU |
9/16
|
ABC
|
4:05-6:41pm
|
1.5
|
2,274
|
PBR: Wrangler Long Live Cowboys |
9/17
|
CBS
|
5:00-6:00pm
|
1.2
|
1,926
|
PGA Tour: BMW Championship:
Final Round |
9/17
|
NBC
|
2:00-6:00pm
|
1.3
|
1,870
|
"College GameDay" |
9/16
|
ESPN
|
9:00am-12:01pm
|
n/a
|
1,727
|
PGA Tour: BMW Championship:
Third Round |
9/16
|
NBC
|
3:00-6:00pm
|
1.1
|
1,698
|
College football:
Colorado State-Alabama |
9/16
|
ESPN2
|
7:02-10:17pm
|
1.0
|
1,613
|
College football:
Oklahoma State-Pitt |
9/16
|
ESPN
|
12:01-3:19pm
|
1.0
|
1,566
|
College football: Illinois-USF |
9/15
|
ESPN
|
7:00-11:08pm
|
n/a
|
1,369
|
"Fox NFL Kickoff" |
9/17
|
Fox
|
11:00am-12:00pm
|
0.8
|
1,211
|
MLB: (regional) |
9/16
|
Fox
|
1:00-4:00pm
|
0.7
|
1,050
|
Liga MX: Chivas-UNAM Pumas |
9/16
|
Univision
|
10:04pm-12:09am
|
0.6
|
686
|
EPL: Tottenham-Swansea City |
9/16
|
NBC
|
12:30-2:30pm
|
0.5
|
621
|
Liga MX: Leon-Pachuca |
9/16
|
Univision
|
8:00-10:04pm
|
0.3
|
575
|
LPGA: Evian Championship:
Final Round (taped) |
9/17
|
NBC
|
12:00-1:30pm
|
0.4
|
551
|
Lucas Oil Off Road Racing (taped) |
9/16
|
CBS
|
2:00-3:00pm
|
0.3
|
467
|
"World of X Games: Real Wake" |
9/17
|
ABC
|
4:00-5:00pm
|
0.3
|
373
|