TV Ratings by Sport. Ignore the NBA Hyperbole. It's football all the way.

The world of TV is ruled by Football.  The two most popular events are the Superbowl and the NCAA championship in football. 

NFL Superbowl 103 Million last year 111 previous 3 seasons.

NCAA Football 30 Million last year,  28.3 Million previous 3 seasons.

NCAA Basketball 21 Million on CBS (Turner 2 times last years of last 3 17 M and 13, drops avg   

NBA 19 M   Only 10 Million Last year - 20 Million avg the 3 previous.

MLB 18.8 Last year 17.4 Million previous 3. 

Golf (Masters) 13 Million  12.4 Previous 3 Other Majors around 5M.

Hockey 3 Million

The NFL is watched by over 100 Million.

The NBA championship hovers around 20 Million, down from the Jordan, Bird, Magic era.  Last year was only 10 Million.

World Series - As the chart shows the sport has been on downward spiral since 2004. But in 2016 with Cubs surpassed the NBA.  I should spend time and find out what TV changes occurred to cause the waning interest.  Someone made a big mistake.

Golf-  The Masters has is steady around 13 Million viewers since 1995.  As matter of fact.  1995 was 13 Million and 2018 was 13 Million. (Tiger Rookie year is 1996) During the Tiger peak it did reach 20 Million in 97 and 19 in 2002.  Phil win from the Trees garnered 16.7 Million.  But overall, there has been no change in viewers, just an increase in the value of the commercials and purses.

Sidebar, Football.
Dallas Cowboys average over 23 Million on Fox games!!!!! They are bigger than everything except NCAA Championship game.  NFL regular season dropped to 13 million per week, down from the 19 million average in 2015. The last Cowboys playoff game was a 44 Million.

SEC championship game with the small southern population averages almost 14 million.

The highest rated TV shows -- Big Bang 18.5 Million behind only Sunday Night Football.

J