The eighth edition of golf’s “The Match” was the least-watched yet. Plus: Gold Cup viewership and more.
“The Match” is least-watched yet
The latest edition of “The Match” golf exhibition — pitting Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson of the NBA Warriors against Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce of the NFL Chiefs — averaged 773,000 viewers across TNT (580K), HLN (106K) and TruTV (87K) Thursday night, easily the least-watched of the seven such contests on Nielsen rated television (the first, pitting Tiger Woods against Phil Mickelson, was a pay-per-view event).
Viewership plunged from last year’s summer “Match” (Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers vs. Mahomes and Josh Allen), which averaged 1.45 million across the same three networks.
Despite the viewership low, “The Match” outperformed the day’s PGA Tour window on Golf Channel, opening round coverage from Detroit (337K).
Fewer viewers for USMNT, Mexico, Gold Cup matches
Wednesday’s United States-St. Kitts and Nevis Concacaf Gold Cup match averaged 613,000 viewers on FS1, down from the second USMNT Gold Cup match two years ago against Martinique (~747K). Spanish-language coverage on UniMas scored a 0.4 rating and 781,000, also down from that 2021 match (~853K). Figures for UniMas include pre-match coverage.
On Thursday, Mexico-Haiti averaged a 1.0 and 1.97 million on UniMas — down from the second Mexico match in ’21 (~2.4M). FS1 chipped in just 266,000 viewers, but that was still up from that ’21 match (~192K).
Plus: MLB on TBS, UFC, BIG3
- Major League Baseball coverage on TBS is averaging 329,000 viewers so far this season, up 38% from the same point last year (239K). The network averaged 351,000 for Twins-Braves this past week, a 55% increase over Astros-Mets a year ago (226K). Its season high is 558,000 for Yankees-Mets earlier this month.
- Last weekend’s UFC Fight Night on ABC averaged a 0.55 rating and 928,000 viewers, down 10% in ratings and 9% in viewership from the network’s previous main event last month (0.6, 1.02M). Morning prelims on ESPN averaged a 0.26 and 492,000, down from the equivalent window last month (0.35, 617K).
- The season premiere of the BIG3 basketball league averaged a 0.32 rating and 483,000 viewers on CBS last Sunday, up from last year’s opener (0.27, 441K).
(Nielsen estimates from Programming Insider 6.29, 6.30, ShowBuzz Daily 6.27, 6.30)