NBC finished with 3.72 million viewers for Shane Lowry’s runaway win at the Open Championship this past weekend, marking the lowest audience for a Sunday finish at the event since ’14, when ESPN drew 3.3 million viewers for Rory McIlroy’s win. McIlroy had a six-stroke lead coming into the final round that year before winning by two strokes over Rickie Fowler and Sergio Garcia. The ’15 event finished on a Monday on ESPN, drawing 2.85 million viewers for a playoff. This year’s Open Championship is down 43% from last year, when Francesco Molinari won by two strokes over four golfers. Last year also saw Tiger Woods hold the lead at one point on Sunday, whereas Woods missed the cut this year. Two years ago, NBC drew 4.91 million viewers for Jordan Spieth’s three-stroke win (Woods did not play in ’17).
GEAR SHIFTS: NBC drew a total audience delivery of 2.82 million viewers for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race from New Hampshire on Sunday afternoon, up 12% from last year. That includes an average minute audience of 25,500 viewers on NBC Digital platforms, marking a record streaming audience for a NASCAR race for NBC Sports. Meanwhile, the NTT IndyCar Series race from Iowa saw weather delays on Saturday night, and with bad weather also predicted for Sunday, IndyCar officials decided to run the race very late on Saturday, with a start at 11:51pm ET and finish at around 2:15am. That hampered NBCSN’s figure for the race, drawing just 156,000 viewers. That is the lowest audience for any IndyCar race since ’14, when the first leg of the Toronto race was moved to a Sunday morning on CNBC due to weather (128,000 viewers at 10:30am; NBCSN wasn’t available in that window due to Tour de France).
NOTES: MLB Network drew 382,000 viewers for the Baseball HOF induction ceremony on Sunday afternoon, which featured honorees such as Mariano Rivera, Edgar Martinez and Mike Mussina. That is the best figure for the event since ’16, when 464,000 viewers tuned in to see the inductions of Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza....NBCSN drew a TAD of 128,000 viewers for the first-ever Premier Lacrosse League All-Star Game on Sunday night (126,000 on TV, 2,000 on streaming). For a head-to-head comparison, FS1 drew 148,000 viewers for Red Bulls-Orlando City on Sunday night.
The chart below lists viewership figures from select recent sports telecasts.
| TELECAST |
DATE |
NET |
TIME (ET) |
RAT. |
VIEWERS
(000) |
| Open Championship: final round |
7/21 |
NBC |
9:00am-1:30pm |
2.5 |
3,720 |
| Open Championship: third round |
7/20 |
NBC |
9:00am-3:00pm |
2.1 |
2,979 |
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series:
Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 (New Hampshire) |
7/21 |
NBCSN |
3:23-6:31pm |
1.7 |
2,794 |
| Open Championship: final round (early) |
7/21 |
NBC |
6:00-9:00am |
1.0 |
1,429 |
| Open Championship: third round (early) |
7/20 |
NBC |
7:00-9:00am |
1.0 |
1,387 |
| MLB: Nationals-Braves |
7/21 |
ESPN |
7:00-10:12pm |
0.8 |
1,329 |
| World Swimming Championships (taped) |
7/21 |
NBC |
2:00-4:00pm |
0.7 |
1,121 |
| Tour de France: Stage 14 (taped) |
7/20 |
NBC |
3:00-4:00pm |
0.7 |
1,090 |
NASCAR Xfinity Series:
Roxor 200 (New Hampshire) |
7/20 |
NBCSN |
4:22-6:22pm |
0.7 |
1,045 |
| Open Championship: second round |
7/19 |
Golf Channel |
8:00am-4:02pm |
0.7 |
998 |
UFC Fight Night:
Leon Edwards d. Rafael Dos Anjos |
7/20 |
ESPN |
9:14pm-12:11am |
0.6 |
957 |
| Open Championship: first round |
7/18 |
Golf Channel |
8:00am-4:00pm |
0.7 |
951 |
| "Open Championship highlights" |
7/21 |
NBC |
4:00-6:00pm |
0.6 |
934 |
Premier Boxing Champions:
Caleb Plant d. Mike Lee |
7/20 |
Fox |
7:00-8:30pm |
0.6 |
923 |
| Horse Racing: Haskell Invitational |
7/20 |
NBC |
5:00-6:00pm |
0.6 |
821 |
| NHRA: Mile High Nationals |
7/21 |
Fox |
3:00-6:00pm |
0.5 |
676 |
| MLB: Dodgers-Phillies |
7/15 |
ESPN |
7:00-10:35pm |
0.4 |
665 |
| Basketball: Big3 (K.C.) |
7/20 |
CBS |
4:00-6:00pm |
0.5 |
631 |
| Open Championship: second round (early) |
7/19 |
Golf Channel |
6:00-8:00am |
0.5 |
626 |
| World Series of Poker: final table |
7/15 |
ESPN |
10:35pm-2:00am |
0.4 |
616 |
| Rodeo: Calgary Stampede (taped) |
7/21 |
CBS |
1:00-2:00pm |
0.4 |
578 |
| UFC Fight Night: prelims |
7/20 |
ESPN |
6:05-8:19pm |
0.4 |
548 |
| Basketball: Big3 (Oklahoma City) |
7/21 |
CBS |
2:00-4:00pm |
0.4 |
547 |
World TeamTennis:
Philadephia Freedoms-Vegas Rollers |
7/21 |
CBS |
4:00-6:00pm |
0.3 |
409 |
| Esports: Apex Legends EXP Pro-Am (taped) |
7/20 |
ABC |
3:00-5:00pm |
0.2 |
304 |
