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NBC missed the first hour of its first Red Sox–Yankees broadcast since 1995 Sunday night due to the network’s PGA Tour coverage running late following a weather delay.
First pitch of the Sunday Night Baseball showcase featuring MLB’s top rivalry was at 7:20 p.m. ET, but NBC didn’t pick up coverage until 8:28 p.m. when the game was already in the bottom of the fourth inning. Peacock and NBC Sports Network carried the initial coverage. Boston won the game 5-4 in 10 innings.
The disruption was caused by an 83-minute stoppage in play at the Travelers Championship—the final of eight $20 million signature events on the 2026 PGA Tour schedule. Play was suspended at 5:57 p.m. and resumed at 7:20 p.m.
NBC’s decision to choose golf over baseball was made shortly before 7 p.m. ET when the PGA Tour announced when it would resume play. “With an hour of play remaining before dark, we made the decision—in consultation with the PGA Tour and Major League Baseball—to finish the 18 holes or until darkness,” an NBC spokesperson told Front Office Sports.
A MLB spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from FOS Monday morning.
Viktor Hovland and Scottie Scheffler, the 54-hole leaders, finished their final rounds tied for the lead with barely any daylight to spare at TPC River Highlands just outside Hartford, Conn. Hovland won a one-hole sudden-death playoff Monday morning to claim the $3.6 million first-place prize, which was broadcast on Golf Channel at 9 a.m. ET.
The Travelers is typically part of CBS’s PGA Tour broadcast schedule but shifted to NBC this year because NBC lost a signature event broadcast when the PGA Tour cancelled its season-opening event in Maui.
NBC re-acquired MLB rights ahead of this season, taking over the Sunday Night Baseball package from ESPN. The June 21 matchup between the Mets and Phillies was the most-watched Sunday Night Baseball game since 2013 (excluding season openers), averaging 3 million viewers on NBC. That game directly followed NBC’s broadcast of the final round of the U.S. Open, which averaged 5.5 million viewers. Overall, Sunday Night Baseball games were averaging 2.3 million viewers through the Mets-Phillies telecast.
Viewership for Red Sox–Yankees and the Travelers Championship will be available later this week. The final round of the 2025 Travelers Championship, won by Keegan Bradley, averaged 3.52 million viewers on CBS.
Women’s PGA Boost
While the weather delay at the Travelers disrupted Red Sox–Yankees, it gave the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship a spot back on network TV after that tournament’s broadcast schedule was also hampered by weather.
Final-round starting times at Hazeltine National Golf Club, just outside Minneapolis, were delayed by three hours and 30 minutes on Sunday, with play not beginning until 11:54 a.m. ET. The tournament was supposed to conclude during its original NBC broadcast window from 1 to 4 p.m. ET. However, it had to shift to Golf Channel when NBC’s Travelers Championship coverage began at 4 p.m.
Then, while the Travelers was delayed, NBC picked the Women’s PGA coverage back up and aired Haeran Ryu winning her first major championship and the $1.95 million winner’s check from the record $13 million purse.
