Without a potential Triple Crown winner on the line, NBC was going to see a big decline for the Belmont Stakes, and that played out on Saturday. NBC drew 4.91 million viewers for Sir Winston’s win, marking the network’s smallest Belmont audience since it re-acquired rights ahead of the ’11 race, and the smallest Belmont audience overall since ABC drew 4.74 million in ’10 for Drosselmeyer’s victory. Last year, the race drew 12.66 million viewers as Justify locked up the last leg of the Triple Crown.
NOTES: CBS drew 2.63 million viewers for Rory McIlroy’s seven-stroke win at the PGA Tour RBC Canadian Open on Sunday. It was the first time the event was held in mid-June after years of being held the week after the Open Championship. The audience marks CBS’ best final round since it began carrying the event back in ’07....Rafeal Nadal’s four-set win over Dominic Thiem on Sunday morning delivered 1.79 million viewers, which is the best French Open men’s final since ’16, when Novak Djokovic defeated Andy Murray (2.0 million viewers). Last year, the same Nadal-Thiem match drew 1.62 million.
The chart below lists viewership figures for select recent sports telecasts.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
| NBA Finals: Raptors-Warriors: Game 3 |
6/5
|
ABC
|
8:59-11:44pm
|
7.8
|
13,348
|
| NBA Finals: Raptors-Warriors: Game 4 |
6/7
|
ABC
|
8:59-11:47pm
|
7.6
|
12,794
|
| NHL Stanley Cup Final: Bruins-Blues: Game 6 |
6/9
|
NBC
|
8:00-11:02pm
|
3.6
|
6,469
|
| NHL Stanley Cup Final: Blues-Bruins: Game 5 |
6/6
|
NBC
|
8:08-11:06pm
|
3.1
|
5,468
|
| NHL Stanley Cup Final: Bruins-Blues: Game 4 |
6/3
|
NBC
|
8:08-11:01pm
|
3.0
|
5,148
|
| Belmont Stakes (race segment) |
6/8
|
NBC
|
6:14-7:00pm
|
3.1
|
4,909
|
| PGA Tour: RBC Canadian Open: final round |
6/9
|
CBS
|
3:00-6:00pm
|
1.7
|
2,633
|
| MLB: (regional) |
6/8
|
Fox
|
7:12-10:42pm
|
1.6
|
2,560
|
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series:
FireKeepers Casino 400 (Michigan)(rain)* |
6/6
|
FS1
|
2:37-4:32pm
|
1.1
|
1,801
|
Women's College World Series Championship:
UCLA-Oklahoma: Game 2 |
6/4
|
ESPN
|
8:29-11:30pm
|
1.1
|
1,799
|
French Open: Men's final:
Rafael Nadal d. Dominic Thiem |
6/9
|
NBC
|
9:00am-2:00pm
|
1.2
|
1,785
|
| Men's soccer friendly: Mexico-Ecuador |
6/9
|
Univision
|
7:00-9:30pm
|
0.9
|
1,761
|
| PGA Tour: RBC Canadian Open: third round |
6/8
|
CBS
|
3:00-6:00pm
|
1.2
|
1,675
|
| MLB: Cardinals-Cubs |
6/9
|
ESPN
|
7:00-9:57pm
|
1.0
|
1,571
|
FIFA Women's World Cup: group stage:
England-Scotland** |
6/9
|
Fox
|
12:00-2:00pm
|
0.9
|
1,482
|
Women's College World Series Championship:
UCLA-Oklahoma: Game 1 |
6/3
|
ESPN
|
7:31-10:26pm
|
0.9
|
1,341
|
| Men's soccer friendly: Mexico-Venezuela |
6/5
|
UniMas
|
9:00-11:12pm
|
0.7
|
1,305
|
FIFA Women's World Cup: group stage:
Norway-Nigeria** |
6/8
|
Fox
|
2:45-5:00pm
|
0.8
|
1,209
|
| F1: Canada Grand Prix |
6/9
|
ABC
|
1:30-4:00pm
|
0.8
|
1,129
|
FIFA Women's World Cup: group stage:
Spain-South Africa** |
6/8
|
Fox
|
11:45am-2:15pm
|
0.7
|
1,081
|
| Soccer friendly (men's): U.S.-Venezuela |
6/9
|
Fox
|
2:00-4:00pm
|
0.6
|
1,037
|
French Open: Women's final:
Ashleigh Barty d. Marketa Vondrousova |
6/8
|
NBC
|
9:00am-2:00pm
|
0.7
|
1,030
|
| UFC Fight Night prelims |
6/8
|
ESPN
|
8:00-10:02pm
|
0.6
|
964
|
| Track & Field: IAAF Diamond League (taped) |
6/8
|
NBC
|
2:00-4:00pm
|
0.7
|
961
|
NCAA baseball: Super Regional:
Florida State-LSU: Game 2 |
6/9
|
ESPN2
|
6:00-10:24pm
|
0.6
|
931
|
NCAA baseball: Super Regional:
Florida State-LSU: Game 1 |
6/8
|
ESPN
|
3:00-6:44pm
|
0.5
|
885
|
Top Rank Boxing:
Henry Cejudo d. Marlon Moraes |
6/8
|
ESPN
|
10:02pm-12:14am
|
0.6
|
799
|
| Volleyball: AVP New York City Open |
6/9
|
NBC
|
4:30-6:00pm
|
0.5
|
732
|
| MLB: Yankees-Indians |
6/8
|
FS1
|
4:00-7:00pm
|
0.5
|
703
|
| PGA Tour: RBC Canadian Open: final round |
6/9
|
Golf Channel
|
12:58-2:45pm
|
0.5
|
694
|
| WNBA: L.A. Sparks-Minnesota Lynx |
6/8
|
ABC
|
3:30-6:00pm
|
0.5
|
565
|
| Premier Lacrosse League: Chaos-Atlas |
6/9
|
NBC
|
2:00-4:00pm
|
0.3
|
409
|
NOTES: * = Race was rained out Sunday and run Monday, when FS1 drew 1.579 million viewers for the race in the 5:00pm ET window. ** = Includes pregame.
