This weekend featured live sports on both ION and The CW, and while viewership for both sports paled in comparison to other sports on other networks, a head-to-head comparison saw the WNBA come out on top.
Per Sports Media Watch‘s weekly viewership breakdown, the Chicago Sky vs New York Liberty WNBA game on ION Friday night averaged 271,000 viewers and the Washington Mystics vs Las Vegas Aces game averaged 212,000 viewers. While both are far less in corresponding timeslots than the NFL Preseason on NFL Network, The Little League World Series on ESPN, and a NASCAR Trucks Series race on FS1, it did beat LIV Golf on The CW over the weekend.
LIV drew 181,000 viewers on Saturday, improving a tick to 187,000 viewers on Sunday.
The LIV events also lagged behind other live golf on the weekend. The FedEx St. Jude Championship averaged 699,000 viewers on Golf Channel and 1.896 million on CBS Saturday, following up with 662,000 on Golf and 3.207 million on CBS Sunday. On Sunday, the AIG Women’s Open averaged 256,000 viewers on USA and 671,000 viewers on NBC.
The WNBA’s multi-year deal with ION began this season and is comprised of Friday night windows across the summer. LIV has a multi-year deal with The CW that also started this year, though CW affiliates in several markets aren’t airing the events and will be going independent in the fall.
