ratings Page 2 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Monaco GP delivers big U.S. ratings despite track criticism
The Monaco Grand Prix delivered the third-largest Formula 1 audience in history in the United States despite heavy criticism of the iconic track after Sunday's race.,The race started at 9 a.m. ET and drew 2.3 million viewers on ABC, the most ever for the Monaco Grand Prix. The only F1 races to draw ...

Ticket prices plunge minus Caitlin Clark for Fever road games
The WNBA and several of its teams and broadcast partners are about to feel the impact of Caitlin Clark not being on the floor.,Clark is expected to miss at least four games with a left quadriceps strain. The news comes on the heels of 2.22 million viewers tuning in to see Clark's Indiana Fever take ...

Indianapolis 500 enjoys highest TV ratings since 2008
The debut of the Indianapolis 500 on Fox Sports certainly paid dividends as the Greatest Spectacle in Racing drew an average audience of more than 7 million, according to Nielsen's fast national ratings -- making it the most-watched Indy 500 since 2008.,The Fox broadcast peaked at 8.4 million viewer...

Pacers-Knicks series opener draws massive ratings
All eyes were on the Indiana Pacers in their stirring late-game comeback and eventual overtime victory versus the New York Knicks in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.,The Pacers' 138-135 win at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night drew a 3.5 rating and 6.6 million viewers on TNT, making i...

Stanley Cup Playoffs ratings continue to sag
Television ratings for the Stanley Cup Playoffs continue to be weighed down in the United States by the heavy presence of Canadian teams.,Playoff games on ESPN networks have averaged 886,000 viewers, down 28 percent from last year's record through two rounds. Meanwhile, TNT Sports has seen a 19 perc...

Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese rivalry game draws big ratings
Saturday's game between the Caitlin Clark-led Indiana Fever and the Chicago Sky drew an average of 2.7 million viewers on ABC, making it the most watched WNBA regular-season contest in 25 years, per Sports Media Watch.,The game, which peaked at 3.1 million viewers, drew the league's second-largest a...

Miami GP suffers major ratings dip minus NBA lead-in
The Miami Grand Prix suffered a major drop in television audience for the fourth edition of the South Florida event on Sunday.,The race won by McLaren's Oscar Piastri drew an average of 2.17 million viewers on ABC, according to Nielsen ratings. That represented around a 30 percent drop from last yea...

Caitlin Clark still must-watch TV during preseason
It was a game that didn't count and still the remote controls were flipping over to watch Caitlin Clark.,Sunday's WNBA preseason game that featured Clark's return to Iowa was a big hit on ESPN. The contest between Clark's Indiana Fever and the Brazil women's national team drew 1.3 million viewers, m...

Kentucky Derby viewership climbs despite attendance dip
Saturday's Kentucky Derby surpassed last year's viewership total as the most-watched edition of the race since 1989, according to the early numbers.,Sovereignty's victory in the season's first Triple Crown race averaged 17.7 million viewers on NBC, according to a combination of Nielsen fast-national...

Shedeur Sanders' draft plummet drives massive TV ratings
Shedeur Sanders' dramatic drop contributed to a massive television ratings boost for the 2025 NFL Draft.,The Colorado quarterback, a projected top-five pick, eventually plummeted all the way to the fifth round.,Friday night's coverage of the second and third rounds averaged 7.4 million viewers, up 4...

Opening weekend of NBA playoffs scores best ratings in 25 years
The 2025 NBA playoffs drew the best ratings for an opening weekend in 25 years, the league announced Tuesday.,The eight-game slate on Saturday and Sunday averaged 4.4 million viewers, a 17-percent increase from a year ago.,The six games on the ABC/ESPN platforms averaged 4.9 million viewers, making ...

WNBA Draft audience second best ever, down from 2024
The WNBA Draft pulled in its second largest television audience Monday with an average of 1.25 million viewers, according to ESPN.,The broadcast peaked at 1.46 million viewers and was up 119 percent, on average, from the 2023 WNBA Draft. UConn's Paige Bueckers was the No. 1 overall selection Monday ...

Final round of Masters draws big ratings for CBS Sports
Rory McIlroy took viewers on a wild ride this past weekend at the Masters, with the end result being the completion of a career Grand Slam for the Northern Irishman and big ratings for CBS Sports.,Per the network, Sunday's final round averaged 12.707 million viewers -- which is up 33 percent from 20...

LIV Golf's record ratings still dwarfed by PGA Tour event
LIV Golf's first event in the United States of 2025 brought record viewership for the league, with 484,000 people tuning in to watch Marc Leishman's triumph in Miami on Sunday.,Unfortunately for the breakaway league, that was still less than a third of the amount of people who opted to watch a stand...

NCAA Tournament's Sunday Elite Eight flops with TV viewers
The Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament was not a big hit with March Madness viewers.,The regional finals on Saturday and Sunday saw all four No. 1 seeds advance to the Final Four and they averaged just 9 million viewers on CBS, TBS and truTV, a 10 percent drop from last year's tournament.,According ...

Women's NCAA tourney attendance down 30% from record '24
The women's NCAA Tournament is chock full of new stars, but attendance through the first two rounds has dropped significantly minus last year's household names including Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese.,It was always going to be difficult to match last year's record numbers, which saw a total of 292,4...

NCAA Tournament ratings hit records despite lack of upsets
The lack of upsets during the first week of the NCAA Tournament led to discourse about whether NIL and the transfer portal are hurting the sport in the long run.,None of that stopped the tournament from hitting some record numbers for viewership.,The first two rounds of the tournament averaged 9.4 m...

UNC's First Four win draws record TV ratings
While North Carolina's addition to the NCAA Tournament was deemed controversial, there is no denying the program's March pedigree and it was evident in record First Four television ratings on Tuesday.,According to Front Office Sports, North Carolina's 95-68 victory over San Diego State in an NCAA To...

Australian GP scores record ratings for ESPN
The Australian Grand Prix was watched by more than 1.1 million viewers on ESPN, setting a record for Formula 1's season-opening event, according to the network.,It beat the previous mark of 659,000 viewers in 2019, and was up 541,000 from last year's race broadcast on ESPN2. The 2025 race, which beg...

Alex Palou's win in IndyCar opener scores FOX huge ratings
Alex Palou took the checkered flag at the St. Petersburg Grand Prix on Sunday, while Fox Sports raked in a huge spike in television ratings.,The broadcaster reported 1.4 million viewers tuned into IndyCar's 2025 season opener across Fox Sports and its streaming services, which represented a 45 perce...