NBC averaged 3.71 million viewers for the final round of the Tour Championship on Sunday, which saw Rory McIlroy win the event and FedExCup Playoffs. This was the first year the PGA Tour finale was not held in late September. While down sharply from a record 5.89 million viewers for Tiger Woods' win last year -- at the time his first on Tour since ’13 -- Sunday’s telecast is the second-best figure for a Tour Championship final round over the last decade and 30% better than all Tour Championship final rounds since the start of the playoff system in ’07.
AROUND THE DIAMOND: The world championship of the Little League World Series on Sunday, which saw River Ridge, La., defeat a team from Willemstad, Curacao, drew 3.02 million viewers on ABC. That’s down from 3.25 million last year, but up from 2.61 million two years ago....ESPN averaged 2.39 million viewers for Yankees-Dodgers this past weekend, marking the net’s second-best “Sunday Night Baseball” audience this season to date, behind only Yankees-Red Sox from July 28 (2.4 million). Meanwhile, FS1 on Saturday drew 728,000 viewers for Yankees-Dodgers, marking the top MLB regular-season game on the cable net since June of last year, also the second-best non-exclusive MLB regular-season game in FS1 history.
NOTES: Fox drew 666,000 viewers for its inaugural airing of the Travers Stakes on Saturday, down 8% from NBC’s telecast of the horse race from Saratoga last year….FS1 on Saturday night drew 345,000 viewers for Premier Boxing Champions, which was headlined by Brandon Figueroa’s win over Javier Chacon. That is FS1’s best PBC audience since January.
The chart below lists viewership for select recent sports telecasts.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
| NFL preseason: Steelers-Titans |
8/25
|
NBC
|
8:08-11:01pm
|
3.8
|
6,236
|
| College football: Florida-Miami |
8/24
|
ESPN
|
7:00-10:52pm
|
3.4
|
5,966
|
| PGA Tour: Tour Championship: final round |
8/25
|
NBC
|
1:30-6:05pm
|
2.5
|
3,708
|
| NFL preseason: Bills-Lions |
8/23
|
CBS
|
8:00-11:00pm
|
2.2
|
3,435
|
| NFL preseason: Jaguars-Dolphins |
8/22
|
Fox
|
8:16-11:03pm
|
2.1
|
3,280
|
Little League World Series: world championship:
River Ridge (LA)-Curacao |
8/25
|
ABC
|
3:00-5:30pm
|
1.9
|
3,017
|
| NFL preseason: 49ers-Broncos |
8/19
|
ESPN
|
8:00-11:23pm
|
1.9
|
3,011
|
Little League World Series: U.S. championship:
River Ridge (LA)-Wailuku (HI) |
8/24
|
ABC
|
3:27-6:15pm
|
1.9
|
2,925
|
| MLB: Yankees-Dodgers |
8/25
|
ESPN
|
7:00-10:01pm
|
1.5
|
2,389
|
Little League World Series: int'l championship:
Curacao-Japan |
8/24
|
ABC
|
12:30-3:27pm
|
1.2
|
1,792
|
| PGA Tour: Tour Championship: third round* |
8/24
|
NBC
|
2:31-4:15pm
|
1.2
|
1,703
|
| ESPN Films: "This is US: The College Game" |
8/24
|
ESPN
|
10:52pm-12:21am
|
n/a
|
1,647
|
Little League World Series:
Wailuku (HI)-South Riding (VA) |
8/21
|
ESPN
|
7:30-10:22pm
|
0.9
|
1,456
|
Little League World Series:
Eastbank (LA)-Loudoun South (VA) |
8/22
|
ESPN
|
8:00-9:53pm
|
0.9
|
1,368
|
Little League World Series:
Elizabeth (NJ)-Barrington (RI) |
8/20
|
ESPN
|
7:30-9:26pm
|
0.8
|
1,191
|
| Liga MX: Club America-Tigres UANL |
8/24
|
Univision
|
10:02pm-12:11am
|
0.7
|
1,120
|
| PGA Tour: Tour Championship: final round (early) |
8/25
|
Golf Channel
|
12:00-1:25pm
|
0.7
|
1,076
|
| "College GameDay" |
8/24
|
ESPN
|
9:00am-12:00pm
|
n/a
|
1,054
|
| NFL preseason: Texans-Cowboys |
8/24
|
NFL Net
|
7:00-10:00pm
|
0.6
|
1,034
|
| EPL: Arsenal-Liverpool |
8/24
|
NBC
|
12:30-2:30pm
|
0.7
|
1,009
|
| PBR: Music City Knockout (Nashville) |
8/25
|
CBS
|
4:00-5:00pm
|
0.6
|
889
|
| Horse racing: Travers Stakes (Saratoga) |
8/24
|
Fox
|
5:00-6:00pm
|
0.5
|
666
|
| Liga MX: Puebla-Cruz Azul |
8/24
|
Univision
|
7:55-10:02pm
|
0.4
|
627
|
| Basketball: Big3 (playoffs) |
8/25
|
CBS
|
2:00-4:00pm
|
0.4
|
550
|
NOTES: * = Halted by lightning. Round 3 finished early on Sunday morning on Golf Channel.
