Ratings Roundup: Tiger Woods Drives Big Numbers for CBS’ Wyndham Champ; Yankees See Post-All-Star Surge on YES

With Tiger Woods in contention and looking to extend his season, the Wyndham Championship last Sunday produced a solid rating for CBS. The final round had a 3.9 rating — the best for a nonmajor on any network since NBC drew 5.7 in May 2013 for Woods’ win at The Players Championship. The rating was also the highest for a nonmajor on CBS since Woods’ win at the AT&T National in July 2012.

Earlier in the week, second round coverage of the PGA Tour Wyndham Championship drew 1.1 million viewers on Golf Channel Friday afternoon, up 184% from last year (370K) and the network’s most-watched program since final round coverage of the Houston Open in April (1.2M). Thursday’s first round coverage had just 434,000 viewers, still up 29% from last year (336K). (AP) (SMW)…

…Viewership of the YES Network’s New York Yankees game telecasts is up by 31% in the New York DMA since the All-Star Break.  Over the same period, viewer delivery in key demos have increased by more than 35% and are on pace for the best season delivery in three years. Viewership of YES’ Yankees game telecasts has increased by 31% (310,000 average viewers vs. 237,000 average viewers) since the All-Star Break (July 13, 2015). Eight of the nine most-viewed Yankees telecasts on YES this season have come since July 29.

Within the same period, YES’ Yankees game telecast delivery in key demos has increased by 35% in Males 25-54; by 33% in Males 18-49; by 27% in Males 18-34; by 33% in Persons 25-54; by 28% in Persons 18-49; and by 27% in Persons 18-34. Since the All-Star Break, YES’ Primetime Yankees telecasts have ranked #1 in the New York DMA in at least one of the key male demos (i.e. 18+, 18-49, 25-54) in 14 of 17 game nights. YES’ Yankees telecasts this season are delivering the best demo viewership since 2012.

In addition, Yankees Pre-Game Show (38%), YES’ Yankees Batting Practice Today (26%) and Yankees Post-Game Show (17%) have all experienced increases in Total Viewership since the All-Star Break. On the digital front, since the All-Star Break, unique visitors to YESNetwork.com are up 9%

…The third episode of HBO’s Hard Knocks featuring the Houston Texans drew 888,000 viewers, according to Nielsen, making it the most watched premiere so far this season. That is up 26% over last year’s third episode with the premiere telecasts now averaging a 28% spike over the first three episodes a year ago. (Cynopsis Sports)…

,,,Sunday’s Packers/Steelers NFL preseason game drew 2.6 million viewers on NFL Network, the second-largest preseason audience ever of the network. Only Browns/Lions last year, which marked the debut of Browns QB Johnny Manziel, earned a larger audience (2.8M). (SMW)…

…Following last week’s two-year anniversary for FOX Sports 1, the network has reported the past year has seen UFC account for 30% of all primetime hours on FS1 through Aug. 17 and 37% YTD in 2016. To date, both UFC PPV prelims and Fight Night events are averaging 600k viewers in the adult 18-49 demo, according to Nielsen and, over the past year, average viewership of UFC PPV prelims has swelled 51% among viewers 18-34 and 36% with people ages 18-49. Since the channel’s launch, UFC programming has seen the median age of UFC viewers average between 8.3-11.4 years younger than non-UFC programming on the network. (Cynopsis Sports)…

…NASCAR Sprint Cup racing from Bristol earned a 2.1 final rating and 3.6 million viewers on NBCSN Saturday night, down 34% in ratings and 29% in viewership from last year (3.2, 5.1M) and down 46% and 43%, respectively, from 2013 (3.9, 6.3M), both of which aired on ABC. That ranks as the lowest rated edition of the race since at least 1998 and the least-watched since at least 2000, falling below the previous marks set over those respective spans — a 2.8 in 1999 and 5.0 million viewers in 2008. (SMW)