OSC Weekly Ratings Wrapup
by David Carlson
October 23, 2019 - National Women's Soccer League (NWSL)
NWSL beats FS1 MLS Sunday, but ESPN Prime Time MLS draws much more
The National Women's Soccer League held their semi-final games on Sunday, and both did well enough to rate in the Top 150 original cable shows Sunday. The second game with Chicago coming out on top outdrew the first game, pulling a .06/155k, vs. a .04/102k for the earlier North Carolina game. This rating exceeded an FS1 MLS game that didn't make the Top 150 for the day.
The primetime ESPN game did a respectable .15 and 317k viewers, though. For a direct year-to-year date comparison, MLS was still in regular season mode last year, and had a double-header on ESPN at 3p & 5p that averaged a .05-.06 and 145k viewers. To compare to the similar round last year, which took place on Sun Nov. 4, ESPN had a 5p game that rated the highest for the day with a .13 and 323k viewers, a similar result. Lower ratings happened for a 3pm ESPN game, and two prime time games on FS1.
Looking back historically for the NWSL, here is a list of the most recent times NWSL broadcasts that have done well enough to make the Top 150 Original Cable shows:
| Sat 9/22/18 4:30p | Lifetime | NWSL Pregame | .05/225k | |
| Sat 8/11/18 3:30p | Lifetime | NWSL Pregame | .05/188k | |
| Sat 7/21/18 3:30p | Lifetime | NWSL Pregame | .06/219k | |
| Sat 5/26/18 3:30p | Lifetime | NWSL | Pregame | .06/232k |
| Sat 5/26/18 3:50p | Lifetime | NWSL | Orl/Chi | .04/110k |
| Sat 5/19/18 3:30p | Lifetime | NWSL | Pregame | .06/222k |
This is pretty consistent throughout 2018 and 2017 for the NWSL on Lifetime. It is interesting that Lifetime was able to get around 200k viewers for a bunch of the pregame airings, but never able to keep very much for the game itself. One wonders if the reruns prior to the pregame rated pretty well, and the rating of the pregame was more of an after effect of people not switching the channel immediately after the show vs. actual interest in the NWSL itself, which then presented itself with the lackluster ratings for the actual games.
Another issue is not going against the NFL on a Sunday afternoon, which while it is hard to totally avoid, should be a consideration in league scheduling if national TV ratings have any importance to your league.
The NWSL Championship between North Carolina and Chicago will be on ESPN at 4pm on Sunday.
Last Week's OSC Leagues Ratings Summary:
| 10/18 | 7pm | ESPNews | CFL | Not in top 150 |
| 10/19 | 3:30pm | FS1 | MLS | .10/264k |
| 10/19 | 10pm | ESPNews | MLS | Not in top 150 |
| 10/20 | 1:30p | ESPN2 | NWSL | .04/102k |
| 10/20 | 3pm | FS1 | MLS | Not in top 150 |
| 10/20 | 4:30p | ESPN2 | NWSL | .06/155k |
| 10/20 | 8:30p | ESPN | MLS | .15/317k |
OSC Leagues on TV in the coming week:
| 10/23 | 7pm | FS1 | MLS |
| 10/23 | 10pm | FS1 | MLS |
| 10/24 | 8pm | ESPN2 | MLS |
| 10/24 | 10:30pm | ESPN | MLS |
| 10/27 | 4pm | ESPN | NWSL Championship |
Follow OSC TV and ratings discussion at https://twitter.com/OsctvR.
NOTE: Don't know what the "demo" is? Unsure of why the different ratings numbers don't match up? Read our explanation of TV ratings in our first article here.
National Women's Soccer League Stories from October 23, 2019
- OSC Weekly Ratings Wrapup - OSC Original by David Carlson
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer(s), and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
