Ratings: NFL preseason, baseball, racing and golf

NFL preseason viewership inched up despite a number of games facing Olympic competition. Plus: the Little League World Series ended on a strong note; NASCAR scored a three-year high at Daytona; another decline for the FedEx Cup.

NFL preseason viewership up slightly despite Olympics

NFL preseason games averaged 1.89 million viewers across NFL Network, NBC, CBS, FOX and ESPN/ABC, up from 1.87 million last year, despite games competing with the Olympics. The abbreviated Hall of Fame Game topped the preseason charts with 5.25 million across ESPN and ABC, followed by Sunday’s Patriots-Commanders game on NBC at 5.04 million.

In other weekend preseason action, CBS drew 4.07 million for Cardinals-Broncos on Sunday afternoon — up from its lone preseason game last year, which aired on a Friday night (Lions-Panthers: 3.43M) — and NFL Network drew 1.64 million for an overlapping Titans-Saints game.

Nine-year high for Little League World Series final

Sunday’s Lake Mary (Fla.)-Taiwan Little League World Series Championship averaged 3.54 million viewers on ABC, up 20% from last year and the largest audience for the event since 2015. Lake Mary’s walk-off win, which peaked with 5.50 million viewers in the 6:15 PM ET quarter-hour, trails only the MLB All-Star Game and Home Run Derby as the most-watched baseball or softball telecast this year.

On Saturday, the Lake Mary-Boerne (Tex.) United States Championship averaged 3.02 million, up 19% from last year and also a nine-year high.

As for the big leaguers, Astros-Orioles averaged 1.31 million in the latest edition of ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball (including a StatCast simulcast on ESPN2) — down from Braves-Giants last year (1.72M). FOX did not carry its usual Saturday window this weekend, but drew 1.95 million for a two-game regional last Thursday.

NASCAR hits three-year high at Daytona

Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series race from Daytona averaged a 1.9 rating and 3.5 million viewers on NBC (3.6 million including additional streaming data not tracked by Nielsen), marking the largest audience for the race in three years (3.96M). Ratings increased a tick and viewership 7% from last year (1.8, 3.3M).

In other racing action, the Formula 1 Netherlands Grand Prix averaged 1.0 million viewers on ESPN (+3%).

Another decline for FedEx Cup

Final round coverage of the PGA Tour BMW Championship averaged 2.45 million viewers on NBC Sunday afternoon, down 19% from last year (3.03M) and the smallest audience for the event since 2017. Third round action drew 1.73 million (-14%).

The Women’s British Open led-in on both days, averaging 950,000 on Sunday — up 42% from last year (651K) — and 547,000 on Saturday.

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