Ratings Roundup: Tiger Woods Drives NBC to Tour Championship Ratings Record; Cleveland Browns Victory Lead NFL Week 4 By Kristian Hernandez, Assistant Editor Wednesday, September 26, 2018 - 11:00 am
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Ratings roundup is a rundown of rating news from the past week and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week's edition, Tiger Woods wins the Tour Championship on Sunday afternoon, NFL Week 3 kicked off with the Cleveland Browns defeating the New York Jets on Thursday Night Football, the Pac-12 matchup between Stanford and Oregon closed out Week 4 of college football, Univision Deportes broadcasts Week 1 of the UEFA Champions League, and UniM s televised the most-watched Liga MX match of the season.
Tiger Woods Finds Winner Circle for the First Time Since 2013
NBC Sports Group's final round coverage of the TOUR Championship on Sunday (3:00-6:19 p.m. ET) garnered a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 7.8 million average viewers, as Tiger Woods claimed his 80th career victory, and his first in five years. The telecast's TAD was up 212% vs. 2017 (2.5m). Television viewership posted 7.18 million average viewers, up 192% YOY (2.46m) and a 4.45 U.S. household rating, up 178% vs. 2017 (1.60). It also becomes the most-watched telecast in the history of the FedExCup Playoffs (2007-2018) and the most-watched PGA TOUR telecast in 2018 (excludes majors).
Coverage peaked from 5:45-6 p.m. ET with 10.84 million average viewers as Woods finished his TOUR Championship-winning round and Justin Rose sealed his season-long victory as the FedExCup champion. The peak viewership number trails only the Masters (16.84m) and PGA Championship (12.39m) in 2018. The extended coverage window (1:30-6:19 p.m. ET) drew 5.89 million average viewers and a 3.69 U.S. household rating to become the most-watched and highest-rated TOUR Championship telecast on record (1991-2018).
Sunday's final round saw 18.4 million minutes streamed across NBC Sports Digital platforms ( 561% year-over-year), and becomes NBC Sports' most-streamed Sunday round (excluding majors) on record (2013-'18).
Sunday's lead-in coverage on Golf Channel (11:54 a.m.-1:25 p.m. ET) also garnered a Total Audience Delivery of 829K average viewers and posted a .56 U.S. household rating, becoming the most-watched and highest rated lead-in telecast of the TOUR Championship ever (2007-2018). Golf Channel was the No. 2 Sports Network during this window and No. 7 out of all Nielsen-rated cable networks during that span.
NFL Week 3 Begins With A Cleveland Browns Victory on Thursday Night Football
NFL Network's telecast of Thursday Night Football between the New York Jets and Cleveland Browns, which featured the professional debut of number one pick Baker Mayfield against number three pick Sam Darnold, averaged a 5.2 US HH rating and over 8.6 million overall P2 viewers ranking as the network's highest rated and most-watched exclusive Thursday night game since December of 2015 (MIN@ARI, 12/10/15; 5.47 US HH rating / 8.74M P2 viewers).
Overall, the game was up 17% in US HH rating and up 16% in overall P2 viewership compared to NFL Network's Week 3 Thursday Night Football game from 2017 (LAR@SF: 4.4 US HH rating / 7.5M P2 viewers).
With Cleveland down 14-0, Mayfield entered the game at the end of the first half and ultimately led the Browns to a 21-17 victory. The game peaked at 10.3M viewers during the game's final six minutes (11:30p-11:36p).
Compared to NFL Network's seven exclusive Thursday Night Football games in 2017, the Jets-Browns was up 43% in US HH rating and up 41% in overall P2 viewership (3.6 US HH rating / 6.1M P2 viewers).
The Jets-Browns game outperformed last week's Thursday Night Football game by 24% in US HH rating and 22% overall P2 viewership (BAL@CIN; 4.2 US HH rating / 7.1M P2 viewers)
According to SportsMediaWatch, the singleheader on CBS earned a 7.0 rating and 11.9 million viewers. It was the lowest rated and least-watched Week 3 singleheader since 2004 (6.0, 10.3M). Also, this is the biggest drop in the first four weeks of the season with no other window dropping more than 19% in either the ratings or viewers category
The national window on Fox, featuring the Cowboys-Seahawks in most markets, captured a 12.7 rating and 22.2 million viewers. Those figures are up 4% in ratings and viewership from last year (mostly Bengals-Packers: 12.2, 21.3M) and up 1% in both measures from 2016 (mostly Steelers-Eagles: 12.6, 22.0M), both on CBS. (SMW)
NBC's latest edition of Sunday Night Football saw the Patriots and Lions earn an 11.5 rating and bring in 19.5 million viewers - up 14% in ratings and 11% in viewership from last year (Oakland-Washington: 10.1, 17.5M), but down 2% and 6% respectively from 2016 (Bears-Cowboys: 11.7, 20.6M) (SMW)
The Monday Night Football telecast (8:15-11:45 p.m. ET) - a Pittsburgh Steelers' 30-27 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers - averaged 12.1 million viewers across ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN Deportes, according to Nielsen, helping ESPN win the night among all networks, broadcast or cable, in households, viewers, and all key male and adult demos (18-34, 18-49, 25 54). Steelers-Buccaneers was also the highest-rated telecast of the night across all broadcast and cable networks among the same key male and adult demos.
On ESPN, Steelers-Buccaneers averaged a 7.2 US household rating and 12.0 million viewers. The telecast peaked from 9:15-9:30 p.m. ET with an 8.3 US household rating and 13.9 million viewers. On ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes, Steelers-Buccaneers averaged an additional 107,000 viewers.
As for local markets, the game delivered a 9.1 rating on ESPN and a 31.9 rating on WTAE-ABC, for a combined 41.0 rating in Pittsburgh. In Tampa Bay-St. Pete, the game delivered a 10.8
