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Kirk Van Houten

Kirk Van Houten

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May 7, 2019
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Strong audience for Colorado's blowout loss to Nebraska

Saturday’s Colorado-Nebraska college football game averaged 6.3 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, according to Nielsen fast-nationals and Adobe Analytics — easily the most-watched game in the network’s “Big Ten Saturday Night” franchise. As was the case for their closer-than-expected opener against North Dakota State (4.76M), Colorado did not draw quite as well as for the equivalent game last season, which also put the Buffaloes against Nebraska. Viewership declined 28% from that year-ago matchup, which averaged a Nielsen-only audience of 8.7 million in the FOX “Big Noon Saturday” window. Last season, it took until mid-October before a single Colorado game averaged fewer than seven million viewers. Coming off of a near-disaster against FCS North Dakota State and a blowout loss to the Cornhuskers in which they trailed 28-0 at halftime, it may be the case that Colorado does not get to that mark once this season. Even so, audiences of four and six million for Colorado football would have been unthinkable two years ago, when the team played one game all year with a seven-figure audience (its season-opener against TCU averaged 1.25 million).
 
Kirk Van Houten

Kirk Van Houten

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May 7, 2019
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Brady's FOX debut shy of 24 million as Cowboys rout Browns

With the Cowboys on field, Tom Brady in the booth and no CBS competition, FOX had all it needed for a huge TV audience -- except a good game.
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With most of the country receiving Cowboys-Browns (Tom Brady’s broadcasting debut), Sunday’s NFL national window on FOX averaged 23.8 million viewers — a 46% increase over last year (mostly Packers-Bears: 16.27M) and the network’s largest Week 1 audience since 2020. That superlative comes with an important caveat; 2020 was also the last time that FOX and CBS did not air competing doubleheaders in Week 1. Last season, FOX not only had to compete with a CBS doubleheader, it was outdrawn head-to-head — as CBS scored more than 21 million for its late game. Overall, considerably fewer viewers were watching FOX alone this year than were watching FOX and CBS combined last year (37.62M).

In other early returns from Sunday, NBC and Peacock averaged 22.7 million viewers for Rams-Lions on Sunday Night Football, per Nielsen fast-nationals and Adobe Analytics — up 3% from Cowboys-Giants last year (22.0M). The Adobe Analytics streaming audience of 2.8 million is what pulled viewership ahead of last year, as the Nielsen-only figure would come out to about 19.9 million — off from last year’s 20.2 million.
 
Kirk Van Houten

Kirk Van Houten

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May 7, 2019
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Slight decline for TNF opener, but still third-best game on Prime

Viewership slipped for the season debut of Thursday Night Football, though the game might have surpassed last year had it been competitive.
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In the season premiere of NFL Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video, the Bills’ rout of the Dolphins averaged 14.96 million viewers — down 1% from Vikings-Eagles last year (15.06M) but still the third-largest NFL audience ever on Prime, trailing only Vikings-Eagles and Seahawks-Cowboys later the same season (15.26M). As has been the case for TNF in the Prime era, the audience makeup was considerably younger than that of the other NFL broadcasters. Thursday’s median age was 46.6, nearly eight years younger than that of the traditional NFL broadcasters in Week 1 (54.2).
 
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Kirk Van Houten

Kirk Van Houten

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May 7, 2019
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Another rout, another dip, for Thursday Night Football

The latest edition of NFL Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video — the Jets’ rout of the Patriots — averaged 13.37 million viewers, down 4% from Giants-49ers last year (13.92M). That follows a 1% decline for the prior week’s TNF season opener, as 14.96 million watched the Bills blow out the Dolphins. Despite the back-to-back declines, TNF has now scored 13 million viewers in back-to-back weeks for just the third time since moving to Amazon. The two-week average of 14.17 million is down just 2% from last year’s 14.48 million and up 19% from the comparable point of Prime’s inaugural season two years ago.
 
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Kirk Van Houten

Kirk Van Houten

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May 7, 2019
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LadyStanley said:
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Fever-Sun Game 2, final game of Caitlin Clark's rookie season, draws record WNBA playoff audience for ESPN

Caitlin Clark's rookie finale, Game 2 of the WNBA playoff series between the Indiana Fever and Connecticut Sun, drew a record-high viewership for ESPN.
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WNBA Feber/Clark due 2.54m on ESPN. New league record.
Click to expand...
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Clark's season finale among best-ever WNBA audiences

The final game of Caitlin Clark's historic rookie season set yet another WNBA viewership milestone with more than 2.5 million viewers.
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"marking the league’s largest audience ever on cable and tenth-largest overall. It is one of only two games this season to rank among the league’s top ten, joining the WNBA All-Star Game on ABC in July (3.44M)." Connecticut’s series-clinching win — which peaked with 3.4 million viewers — trails only the aforementioned All-Star Game as the most-watched WNBA telecast since Memorial Day 2000 (Liberty-Comets: 2.74M) and ranks as the most-watched playoff game since the deciding Game 3 of the 1999 Finals (Liberty-Comets: 3.25M). Those games aired on NBC.
 
Kirk Van Houten

Kirk Van Houten

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May 7, 2019
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Cowboys-Giants most-watched TNF game in Amazon era

The latest edition of NFL Thursday Night Football (Cowboys-Giants) averaged 16.22 million viewers on Amazon Prime Video, marking the largest TNF audience since the series moved to Amazon three years ago. The previous high was 15.26 million for Seahawks-Cowboys on TNF last November. Viewership increased 20% from Lions-Packers last season (13.48M) and ranks as the highest for TNF in Week 4 since 2019 (Eagles-Packers: 17.91M). (Keep in mind 2019 was also the last time TNF aired on broadcast television in Week 4.). TNF is now averaging 14.9 million viewers this season, up 5% from 14.1 million at the same point last year and up 55% from the first three games of Amazon’s inaugural season two years ago (9.58M). It is averaging 7.17 million in adults 18-49 and 3.20 million in 18-34, both up 3% from the same point last year (6.95 and 3.12 million).
 
Kirk Van Houten

Kirk Van Houten

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May 7, 2019
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SEC on ABC tops wild college football weekend

The SEC ruled the ratings on a wild college football weekend, and that is not even counting the most memorable game of the weekend.
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The most notable on-field result was then-#1 Alabama’s upset loss to Vanderbilt, but that game aired on SEC Network, which is not Nielsen rated. ESPN uses ComScore to measure viewership on SEC Network and those figures will not be available for weeks. In the meantime, ESPN said Tuesday that its streaming audience for Vanderbilt’s win was the third-best ever for SEC Network, trailing only a seven-overtime Texas A&M-LSU game in 2018 and a Georgia-Missouri contest in 2022.
 
Kirk Van Houten

Kirk Van Houten

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May 7, 2019
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NFL Week 5 viewership mostly down

Week 5 of the NFL season was marked by ratings declines for each of the league's major television partners.
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CBS, which is still at an impasse with Nielsen, delivered the top NFL audience of a second-straight week with a 9.9 rating and 20.27 million viewers for Sunday’s national window (Packers-Rams in 86% of markets) — down 14% in ratings and 12% in viewership from last year (mostly Chiefs-Vikings: 11.6, 23.13M).

Delayed until after 9:45 PM ET due to a weather delay, Cowboys-Steelers averaged a 9.4 rating and 20.3 million viewers on the latest edition of NBC’s Sunday Night Football (17.81M per Nielsen, plus additional streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics) — down 22% in ratings and 23% in viewership from Cowboys-49ers last year (12.1, 26.3M).

ESPN’s Monday Night Football (Saints-Chiefs) averaged 15.91 million viewers across ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes — the largest cable-exclusive MNF audience since 2019, but down from Packers-Raiders on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC last year (17.38M).

FOX averaged a 7.1 and 14.24 million for its singleheader — down 16% and 15% respectively from last year (ft. Eagles-Rams: 8.4, 16.81M). CBS was the lone exception to the declines, turning in a 7.4 and 14.34 million for its early doubleheader window (Bills-Texans in 60% of markets), up 11% and 14% respectively from a year ago (mostly Ravens-Steelers: 6.7, 12.63M).

NFL Network drew a 2.6 and 4.95 million for the Jets-Vikings International Series game from London — down from Jaguars-Bills in Week 5 a year ago (2.7, 5.13M).
 
Kirk Van Houten

Kirk Van Houten

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May 7, 2019
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WNBA playoff viewership still strong entering Finals

The first two rounds of the WNBA Playoffs averaged 970,000 viewers across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, more-than-double the same point last year (400K). Excluding three games that either featured or had a direct lead-in from Caitlin Clark and the Fever (1.86M), the postseason is averaging 771,000 viewers — still considerably above last year’s levels. Entering the WNBA Finals, 11 playoff games this year have averaged at least 800,000 viewers, compared to one last season.

Friday’s Liberty-Aces semifinal Game 3 delivered the top audience of the round with a 0.60 rating and 994,000 viewers on ESPN2, marking the largest WNBA semifinal audience since 2002. Sunday’s clinching Game 4 averaged a 0.58 and 979,000 on ABC, the full Liberty-Aces series averaged 967,000 viewers, up a third from the teams’ meeting in last year’s WNBA Finals (728K). All four games of the series averaged more viewers than any of last year’s four Finals games.

As for the other semifinal, Tuesday’s winner-take-all Sun-Lynx Game 5 averaged a 0.58 and 984,000 — the second-largest semifinal audience since 2002 and the most-watched Game 5 in WNBA playoff history, including the Finals.
Game 3 of the series drew a 0.50 and 885,000 on ESPN2 Friday night — up triple-digits from Liberty-Sun Game 3 last year (0.21, 336K) — and Game 4 had a series-low 0.32 and 538,000 on ESPN Sunday afternoon. The five-game Lynx-Sun series averaged 752,000 viewers, marking the most-watched playoff series to ever involve either team, including the Finals.
 
Kirk Van Houten

Kirk Van Houten

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May 7, 2019
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WNBA Finals hits million viewer mark for first time in 21 years

The WNBA Finals scored its top audience in more than two decades as over a million viewers saw Minnesota's Game 1 comeback against New York.
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Thursday’s Lynx-Liberty WNBA Finals Game 1 averaged a 0.6 rating and 1.14 million viewers on ESPN, marking the largest WNBA Finals audience since Game 2 of the 2003 series on ABC (Sparks-Shock: 1.28M), the largest Game 1 audience in Finals history and the tenth-largest audience in the history of the event. The previous high for a Finals opener was 1.07 million for Game 1 of the Mercury-Comets 1998 series on ESPN and Lifetime. (If one wants to get technical, the single-elimination 1997 final would still rank as the top “Game 1” with 2.85 million on NBC.) The 1998 series would likely still come out ahead all things being equal, as Nielsen did not track out-of-home viewing prior to 2020.

It was just five years ago that Game 1 of the Sun-Mystics WNBA Finals averaged 238,000 viewers on ESPN, the smallest audience for any game in Finals history. Viewership has increased for each subsequent Game 1, rising to 351,000 for Aces-Storm in the 2020 “bubble,” 469,000 for Sky-Mercury in 2021, 555,000 for Sun-Aces in 2022 and 729,000 for Liberty-Aces last season.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1844850465256698093
 
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