Ratings roundup — F1 scored another of its largest U.S. audiences last weekend; Yankees-Red Sox came up short in more ways than one on Sunday Night Baseball; a season-high for the WNBA; and more.
F1 Canadian GP joins list of top races ever on U.S. TV
Last Sunday’s Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix averaged a 0.9 rating and 1.76 million viewers on ABC, up 2% from last year (1.72M) and the fourth-largest live F1 audience ever on U.S. television. Three of the top four have come this year, with the Canadian GP joining Miami (1.96M) and Monaco (1.79M). (Last year’s inaugural Miami GP holds the top spot with 2.58 million.)
Max Verstappen’s win, which peaked with 1.92 million viewers from 3:15-3:30 PM ET, increased two percent year-over-year. Figures do not include “The Grandstand” alternate presentation on ESPN2 featuring Daniel Ricciardo and the actor Will Arnett (114K).
In the same Sunday afternoon window, the IndyCar Series at Road America drew a 0.23 and 385,000 on USA Network. Last year’s race aired on NBC and had 1.09 million.
Yankees-Red Sox comes up short on Sunday night
Lasting just two hours and 20 minutes, Yankees-Red Sox averaged a 0.8 rating and 1.43 million viewers on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball last weekend — the rivals’ least-watched Sunday night game since September 2019 opposite the NFL (1.30M). Ratings and viewership fell well short of their meeting the prior weekend, which lasted a half-hour longer and drew a Sunday night season-high 1.1 and 1.94 million.
The previous night, FOX averaged a mere 0.6 and 1.08 million for Rays-Padres — topping only Cubs-Marlins in April as its least-watched window of the season (986K). Like that Cubs-Marlins game, Rays-Padres aired nationwide after the primary FOX game (Yankees-Red Sox) was rained out.
WNBA scores season-high on CBS
Last Sunday’s Mercury-Liberty WNBA regular season game averaged a 0.44 rating and 694,000 viewers on CBS, the largest audience of the season on any network — topping the previous high of 684,000 for ABC’s Aces-Storm on the opening weekend of play. Six WNBA games this season have averaged at least 600,000 viewers, surpassing last year’s full regular season total of four.
In addition to the season-high, the game also delivered the largest WNBA audience ever on CBS. It cruised past its LPGA Tour lead-out (425K) and the NWSL game that followed (394K).
Plus: USMNT-Canada, USFL, UFC
- Last Saturday’s United States-Canada Concacaf Nations League final averaged 1.82 million viewers on Univision, less than half the audience of the United States-Mexico final two years ago, which topped the four million mark. CBS did not disclose the English-language audience on Paramount+, but said that viewership increased 102% from ’21.
- The just-completed USFL regular season averaged 601,000 viewers across Fox and NBC Sports, three percent lower than the 622,000 the XFL averaged during its season earlier this year, per Sports Business Journal.
- The latest UFC Fight Night on ESPN averaged a 0.53 rating and 943,000 viewers last Saturday night, up from the network’s previous main event two weeks earlier (0.47, 845K).
For additional sports ratings reporting, see the following posts:
— NBA Draft is most-watched on record
— LSU driving viewership for Men’s College World Series
— U.S. Open is most-watched in four years
(Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 6.21, SBJ 6.22, network PR)
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