TV ratings for sports other than hockey

[Kirk Van Houten]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1858916305228665019

"SEC on ABC" sweeps second-straight CFB Saturday

For the second-straight week, and the sixth time in 12, ABC delivered the top audience in each of the major college football windows.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

ABC delivered the top game in each of Saturday’s main college football windows, marking the second-straight week — and the sixth time in 12 weeks this season — that the network has accomplished the feat. Most, but not all, of those windows have been part of its “SEC on ABC” package.

ABC has now won the primetime Saturday window ten times in 12 tries this season. As in primetime, ABC has now won the mid-afternoon window ten times in 12 weeks. The Longhorns’ win helped ABC win the Noon ET window for a seventh time in 12 weeks — meaning that in most weeks this season, ABC has topped the FOX “Big Noon Saturday” window head-to-head. It should be noted that ABC regularly puts its weakest game telecast in the Noon ET window, while FOX typically schedules its biggest game of the week in that slot. Overall, ABC has won three-quarters of the Saturday windows in which it has aired games (27 of 36). By comparison, FOX has won five windows (all at Noon), NBC three (one at 3:30 and two at 8:00) and CBS one (3:30).

In other week twelve action, ESPN bookended its quadrupleheader with 1.85 million for Clemson-Pittsburgh and 1.75 million for Kansas-BYU. The former game declined from Oklahoma-BYU last year (2.17M). In between, Boston College-SMU drew 957,000 and Arizona State-Kansas State 849,000, down 46 and 63 percent respectively from last year’s comparable windows (North Carolina-Clemson: 1.76M; Florida-Missouri: 2.27M).

 

[Kirk Van Houten]

Chiefs-Bills scores milestone audience on CBS

The Chiefs-Bills rivalry delivered one of the top regular season NFL audiences in recent memory, with over 31 million tuning in on CBS.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

Sunday’s Chiefs-Bills NFL national window averaged a 15.1 rating and more than 31 million viewers on CBS, trailing only Cowboys-Dolphins on Christmas Eve last year (31.52M) as the most-watched national window since 2007 — when CBS drew 33.8 million for Peyton Manning and the Colts against Tom Brady and the undefeated Patriots. (As with any viewership milestones of this sort, keep in mind that out-of-home viewing was not included in Nielsen estimates until 2020.) The Bills’ win delivered the fourth-largest audience on record for the NFL national window and one of the ten-largest regular season audiences overall outside of Thanksgiving (records date back to 1988).

Earlier in the day, CBS averaged 19.8 million for the first half of its doubleheader — its most-watched early doubleheader window since 1992. Both CBS windows outperformed the primetime telecasts, with NBC’s Sunday Night Football at an 8.0 and 15.31 million for Bengals-Rams and ESPN’s Monday Night Football clocking in around 17 million for Texans-Cowboys (an exact figure for MNF will be provided when available). Both windows declined from last year, when SNF drew 18.45 million for Vikings-Broncos and MNF had a milestone audience of its own with 29.03 million for Eagles-Chiefs.