TV ratings for sports other than hockey

[Kirk Van Houten]

Big numbers, but four-year lows, for Sunday's NFL Divisional games

The NFL delivered its customary massive audiences on Divisional Round Sunday, but both windows hit four-year viewership lows.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

Sunday’s Ravens-Bills AFC Divisional Round game averaged 42.2 million viewers on CBS, per Nielsen fast-nationals — down 16% from Chiefs-Bills in the same window last year (50.4M) and the least-watched game in the late Sunday Divisional Round window since Buccaneers-Saints in 2021 (35.5M). (It should be noted that each of the intervening games featured the Chiefs or Cowboys.) Even with the somewhat surprising four-year low, the Bills’ win delivered the tenth-largest Divisional Round audience on record. (Keep in mind Nielsen did not begin tracking out-of-home viewing in its estimates until 2020.)

Earlier in the day, NBC averaged a combined audience of 37.8 million for Rams-Eagles across Nielsen fast-nationals and Adobe Analytics — down from 40.4 million for Buccaneers-Lions last year. The Eagles’ win was the least-watched game in the early Sunday Divisional Round window since 2021 — when Browns-Chiefs drew a Nielsen-only audience of 34.3 million on CBS.

Through the Divisional Round, eight of ten NFL playoff games have declined from last year. That includes three of four games on Divisional Round weekend, the exception being Texans-Chiefs on ESPN/ABC.

 

[Brodie]

The college football national championship game posted a 12% ratings decline from last year, none of this year's playoff games made the top 12 all time since the format was introduced in 2014

 

[LadyStanley]

College Football Playoff: 22 million people watched Ohio State’s win over Notre Dame, down from last year

The Buckeyes' win over Notre Dame peaked at more than 26 million viewers on Monday night.

sports.yahoo.com

22m watched CFP title game

 

[Kirk Van Houten]

Expect this to change as soon as 2027 when ABC gets to broadcast them again

 

[varsaku]

The college football national championship game posted a 12% ratings decline from last year, none of this year's playoff games made the top 12 all time since the format was introduced in 2014

The game was fairly one sided. Had it been closer, the viewership numbers would have been higher especially with these two involved. I didn't bother tuning in since i knew Notre Dame would get blown out. They always have an easy schedule that has them too highly ranked as a result.

 

[Kirk Van Houten]

Ratings: NBA, TGL, Unrivaled and more

In a mixed week for the NBA, the Celtics-Lakers rivalry took a hit and the Martin Luther King Day slate bounced back.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

Monday’s Martin Luther King Day doubleheader averaged 973,000 viewers on TNT and truTV, the highest for TNT’s MLK slate in four years — since the last time there were no football games on the holiday. Celtics-Warriors drew 1.32 million and Timberwolves-Grizzlies 671,000, up 158% and 94% respectively from last year’s pairing of Spurs-Hawks and Grizzlies-Warriors, which faced unexpected competition from a rescheduled NFL playoff game.

Thursday’s Celtics-Lakers NBA regular season game averaged 1.2 million viewers across TNT and truTV, down 13% from Warriors-Kings last year (1.39M), with the caveat that coverage overlapped with a delayed Heat-Bucks game that pushed the start exclusively to truTV. Heat-Bucks, which began an hour later than scheduled, averaged 1.05 million — down 24% from Celtics-Heat a year ago (1.39M). ESPN averaged 1.17 million for Timberwolves-Mavericks and 1.09 million for Warriors-Kings Wednesday, down 30% and up 80% respectively from last year’s overlapping games on ABC (Suns-Mavericks: 1.68M) and ESPN (Thunder-Spurs: 604K). On Tuesday, TNT and truTV drew 979,000 for Knicks-Nets (-1%) and 840,000 for Sixers-Nuggets (-36%). Last Friday, ESPN drew 1.15 million for Magic-Celtics and 1.13 million (-43%) for Grizzlies-Spurs (-4%).

 

[LadyStanley]

https://sports.yahoo.com/chiefs-bills-afc-title-game-delivers-record-audience-of-574m-viewers-175105330.html

AFC title 57.4m viewers

 

[Kirk Van Houten]

Commanders-Eagles hits low, capping down year for NFC

Long the power conference in the NFL, the NFC completed a soft season in the ratings with a multi-year low for its championship game.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

Sunday’s Commanders-Eagles NFC Championship Game averaged 44.2 million viewers across the Fox Sports family of networks, marking the least-watched NFL conference title game since Bills-Chiefs on CBS in 2021 (42.8M) and the least-watched NFC title game since Packers-49ers in 2020, the last year before Nielsen began including out-of-home data in its viewership estimates (42.5M on FOX, 43.9M across all Fox platforms). Overall, it was the third-least watched NFC Championship Game on FOX since 2013 — ahead of only Packers-49ers in ’20 and Vikings-Eagles in 2018 (42.3M on FOX, 42.8M across all Fox platforms).

All six NFC games this postseason declined from last year, with four of those down by double-digits. By comparison, only three of six AFC games declined, one by double-digits. The downward trend for the NFC playoffs comes on the heels of NFC-affiliated FOX having its least-watched regular season in four years, not coincidentally since the last time the Cowboys failed to make the playoffs.

Latest Bills-Chiefs thriller is most-watched AFC title game on record

Long the lesser NFL conference, the AFC continues to reach new ratings heights on the backs of star quarterbacks and new rivalries.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

Sunday’s Bills-Chiefs AFC Championship Game averaged 57.7 million viewers on CBS, marking the largest audience on record for an AFC title game (dating back to 1988) and the most-watched conference championship overall since Vikings-Saints on FOX in 2010 (57.9M). Going back further, the only other conference title game with a larger recorded audience was Cowboys-49ers in 1982, which was said to have averaged 68.7 million in an era before Nielsen people meters. The only other time the Patrick Mahomes-era Chiefs and Josh Allen-era Bills met in the AFC title game was in the COVID-affected 2020-21 season, when the matchup averaged 42.3 million. All other playoff meetings took place in the Divisional Round, which generally does not attract the kind of audiences typical of a conference championship.

The AFC title game averaged 13.5 million more viewers than its NFC counterpart (44.2M), or 31% — the biggest gap between title games on both a raw and percentage basis since 1996. That year, Packers-Cowboys on FOX outdrew Colts-Steelers on CBS by nearly 15 million viewers and nearly 40 percent. That gap is broadly indicative of the changing fortunes of the AFC and NFC, the latter of which has long been the most attractive conference. AFC-affiliated CBS averaged more viewers than NFC-affiliated FOX for a second-straight regular season, a feat that prior to last year had not been accomplished since 2007.

 

[Kirk Van Houten]

Ratings: NBA, NASCAR Clash, PGA Tour

On a mixed weekend for the NBA, Lakers-Knicks topped the Saturday charts despite a modest decline from a year ago. Plus: NASCAR an PGA.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

Saturday’s Lakers-Knicks NBA regular season game averaged 2.51 million viewers on ABC, down 8% from the same matchup on the same weekend last year (2.74M), but the most-watched sporting event of a day that included the Duke-North Carolina men’s college basketball rivalry. It was also the most-watched primetime show of the night and the top program of the day among viewers under 50. On Sunday, ESPN averaged 1.66 million for Celtics-Sixers following the NFL Pro Bowl — up 12% from Clippers-Heat in that window last year (1.49M), and the most-watched NBA game on cable since Thunder-Cavaliers on ESPN early last month. Grizzlies-Bucks followed with 1.48 million. Rounding out the recent NBA slate, ESPN drew 1.17 million for Suns-Warriors and 1.12 million for Nuggets-Sixers on Friday.

 

[Reaser]

Ratings: NBA, NASCAR Clash, PGA Tour

On a mixed weekend for the NBA, Lakers-Knicks topped the Saturday charts despite a modest decline from a year ago. Plus: NASCAR an PGA.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

Saturday’s Lakers-Knicks NBA regular season game averaged 2.51 million viewers on ABC, down 8% from the same matchup on the same weekend last year (2.74M), but the most-watched sporting event of a day that included the Duke-North Carolina men’s college basketball rivalry. It was also the most-watched primetime show of the night and the top program of the day among viewers under 50. On Sunday, ESPN averaged 1.66 million for Celtics-Sixers following the NFL Pro Bowl — up 12% from Clippers-Heat in that window last year (1.49M), and the most-watched NBA game on cable since Thunder-Cavaliers on ESPN early last month. Grizzlies-Bucks followed with 1.48 million. Rounding out the recent NBA slate, ESPN drew 1.17 million for Suns-Warriors and 1.12 million for Nuggets-Sixers on Friday.

Looks like the Pro Bowl got 4.7M across ABC/ESPN/DisXD:

NFL Pro Bowl Ratings Drop Again Despite Flag Football Push

Viewership for the Pro Bowl Games decreased for the third consecutive year in the rebranded iteration of the league’s all-star contest. ABC, ESPN, and Disney XD drew 4.7 million viewers.

frontofficesports.com

 

[Greatzsky 99]

Anyone keeping check of avg for NBA this season? maybe my memory is short, or
i didnt pay close attention, but the games under 1 million seems to be more.

 

[Kirk Van Houten]

Anyone keeping check of avg for NBA this season? maybe my memory is short, or
i didnt pay close attention, but the games under 1 million seems to be more.

Where does the NBA stand in the ratings?

NBA ratings are yet again the topic of sports media discussion, making it a good time to examine the numbers and see where the league stands.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

Through Saturday, NBA games were averaging 1.4 million viewers across ABC, ESPN and TNT — down 19 percent from last year (with NBA TV included, the decline swells to 25 percent).

All I could find in terms of overall numbers was that from early december. Since then the league held the NBA Cup and Christmas games so it could be a better for the NBA.

 

[Greatzsky 99]

Where does the NBA stand in the ratings?

NBA ratings are yet again the topic of sports media discussion, making it a good time to examine the numbers and see where the league stands.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

Through Saturday, NBA games were averaging 1.4 million viewers across ABC, ESPN and TNT — down 19 percent from last year (with NBA TV included, the decline swells to 25 percent).

All I could find in terms of overall numbers was that from early december. Since then the league held the NBA Cup and Christmas games so it could be a better for the NBA.

Thanks man, thats not as bad as I thought.

 

[Greatzsky 99]

The NBA scored some big viewership gains in a trade deadline week that was the talk of the sports world.

Thursday’s Warriors-Lakers and Mavericks-Celtics NBA regular season games averaged 1.84 million and 1.81 million viewers respectively across TNT and truTV, marking the two most-watched games on TNT Sports since November (Cavaliers-Celtics: 1.94M) and the most-watched NBA games on cable overall since Thunder-Cavaliers on ESPN last month (1.87M).

Full article at:

NBA sees big gains for games during trade deadline week

The NBA scored some big viewership gains in a dramatic trade deadline week that was the talk of the sports world.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

 

[MMC]

 

[Kirk Van Houten]

Fox touts record audience for Super Bowl rout

It may be that the Super Bowl never falls short of a viewership record again, as even the Eagles' rout of the Chiefs is said to have set a new high.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

"At this stage in the ratings game, actual viewing habits are a secondary consideration to how those habits are being measured. Nielsen last week expanded its out-of-home viewing sample from two-thirds of homes to the entire country, and this fall will begin incorporating first-party data into its estimates. It is entirely possible that these adjustments will result in more accurate estimates of viewer behavior, but — as was the case with the inclusion of out-of-home viewing in 2020 — they will also result inevitably in favorable comparisons to past years."

 

[Nicky Santoro]

.

 

[Kirk Van Houten]

Doncic's debut draws solid crowd on ESPN

Luka Doncic's Laker debut delivered one of the top NBA audiences on cable this season as more than two million watched on ESPN.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

Monday’s Jazz-Lakers NBA regular season game, which marked the Laker debut of Luka Doncic, averaged 2.01 million viewers on ESPN — the most-watched NBA game on cable since Mavericks-Warriors on TNT November 12, Dallas G Klay Thompson’s first return to the Bay Area (2.14M). ESPN added Pacers-Lakers to its schedule Saturday afternoon in the hopes that he would make his debut then, but after he missed that game — which still averaged 1.39 million — the network added Monday’s matchup against Utah.

The Lakers’ blowout win, ranks fifth for the season among cable-exclusive games behind the aforementioned Mavericks-Warriors game, Warriors-Celtics on ESPN November 6 (2.14M) and TNT’s Opening Night doubleheader (Knicks-Celtics: 3.01M; Timberwolves-Lakers: 2.91M).

 

[LadyStanley]

NBA All-Star Game viewership down 13% amid latest format change, criticism

Only a single All-Star Game in the past 25 years drew fewer viewers than this one.

sports.yahoo.com

Only a single All-Star Game in the past 25 years drew fewer viewers than this one.


Down 13%

 

[Kirk Van Houten]

NBA All-Star Game, Saturday Night, down double-digits

As one would expect, viewership for both the NBA All-Star Game and Saturday night festivities fell double-digits from last year.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

Despite the tough competition, the game still won the night on all of television among adults under 35, an indication of the NBA’s younger-skewing audience. The All-Star Game also matched this year’s record-low NFL Pro Bowl, though that came before Nielsen expanded its out-of-home sample.

All-Star Saturday Night did not hold up as well as the game itself, averaging 3.39 million on TNT and truTV — down 26% from last year (4.57M) and the smallest audience for the event in at least a quarter-century. The previous low was 3.42 million in 2023. Viewership trailed the competing United States-Canada NHL Four Nations Face-Off game on ABC, which averaged 4.4 million.

After a widely-publicized double-digit decline to start the season, viewership on ABC, ESPN and TNT (1.55M) is down five percent entering the second half of the season.

This year marked the final NBA All-Star Weekend on TNT. The All-Star Game returns to NBC for the first time since 2002 next season, with All-Star Saturday Night set to air on the network for the first time.

Iron Bowl tops big weekend of men's, women's, college hoops

It is one of top rivalries in college football, but Auburn-Alabama delivered a big basketball audience for their #1 vs. #2 matchup Saturday.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

Saturday’s Auburn-Alabama men’s college basketball game, a matchup of the nation’s top ranked teams, averaged 2.76 million viewers on ESPN — trailing only Illinois-Arkansas on CBS Thanksgiving Day as the most-watched game of the college basketball season, regardless of gender. The Tigers’ win outdrew the two previous #1 vs. #2 matchups in men’s college basketball, Gonzaga-UCLA in November 2021 (1.59M) and Michigan State-Kentucky in the 2019 Champions Classic (2.33M). The last #1 vs. #2 men’s game to deliver a larger audience was Duke-Michigan State in the 2017 Champions Classic (3.02M).

Shifting to women’s action, ABC averaged 1.8 million viewers for UConn’s blowout of South Carolina on Sunday afternoon, followed by LSU-Texas at 1.7 million — the two largest regular season women’s audiences on the ESPN networks since Stanford snapped UConn’s 90-game winning streak in 2010 (2.1M).

 

[Kirk Van Houten]

Rejuvenated Warriors, Lakers, lead NBA weekend viewership

In their first ABC games since big trades, the Warriors and Lakers provided reason for cautious optimism -- on the court and in the ratings.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

ABC averaged 2.90 million viewers for Mavericks-Warriors, 2.87 million for Lakers-Nuggets and 2.24 million for Knicks-Celtics over the weekend, down 3%, up 29% and up 37% respectively from last year’s equivalent NBA windows (Lakers-Suns: 2.98M; Celtics-Knicks: 2.22M; Bucks-Sixers: 1.64M). All three games were routs in which the winning team led by at least 24 points.

Shifting to cable, ESPN averaged 1.73 million for Grizzlies-Cavaliers Sunday night — down 21% from a higher-profile pairing of Denver and Golden State last year (2.20M) — followed by 1.48 million for Thunder-Timberwolves (+3%). On Friday night, the network drew 1.16 million for Timberwolves-Rockets and 1.13 million for Knicks-Cavaliers, down 4 and 6 percent respectively from last year’s doubleheader of Cavaliers-Sixers and Bucks-Timberwolves (both 1.20M).

TNT last Thursday averaged 1.04 million for Celtics-Sixers and just 858,000 for Suns-Spurs opposite the NHL “Four Nations Face-Off” final (9.3M), down 23 and 51 percent respectively from last year’s doubleheader of Suns-Mavericks (1.35M) and Lakers-Warriors (1.76M).

 

[varsaku]

Rejuvenated Warriors, Lakers, lead NBA weekend viewership

In their first ABC games since big trades, the Warriors and Lakers provided reason for cautious optimism -- on the court and in the ratings.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

ABC averaged 2.90 million viewers for Mavericks-Warriors, 2.87 million for Lakers-Nuggets and 2.24 million for Knicks-Celtics over the weekend, down 3%, up 29% and up 37% respectively from last year’s equivalent NBA windows (Lakers-Suns: 2.98M; Celtics-Knicks: 2.22M; Bucks-Sixers: 1.64M). All three games were routs in which the winning team led by at least 24 points.

Shifting to cable, ESPN averaged 1.73 million for Grizzlies-Cavaliers Sunday night — down 21% from a higher-profile pairing of Denver and Golden State last year (2.20M) — followed by 1.48 million for Thunder-Timberwolves (+3%). On Friday night, the network drew 1.16 million for Timberwolves-Rockets and 1.13 million for Knicks-Cavaliers, down 4 and 6 percent respectively from last year’s doubleheader of Cavaliers-Sixers and Bucks-Timberwolves (both 1.20M).

TNT last Thursday averaged 1.04 million for Celtics-Sixers and just 858,000 for Suns-Spurs opposite the NHL “Four Nations Face-Off” final (9.3M), down 23 and 51 percent respectively from last year’s doubleheader of Suns-Mavericks (1.35M) and Lakers-Warriors (1.76M).

Four Nations Face-Off really ate into NBA viewership.