CBS earned its highest college basketball rating of the season for last week’s Indiana/Michigan clash. In other news, the NHL hit a season-low on NBC, and viewership dropped by double-digits for the NASCAR Nationwide Series at Las Vegas.
Indiana/Michigan Hits CBS High
- Last Sunday’s Indiana/Michigan men’s college baskeball game earned a 2.1 final rating on CBS, the highest rating of the season* on the network. The previous high was a 2.0 for Temple/Kansas following an NFL playoff game in January. Despite the season-high, Sunday’s game trailed the first meeting between Indiana and Michigan this season, which aired on ESPN (2.5). Ratings for CBS’ other five games last weekend ranged from 0.7 (two games) to 1.3 (Notre Dame/Louisville). (Weekend numbers from Sports Business Daily)
Season-Low For NHL on NBC
- NBC drew a mere 0.7 final rating and 959,000 viewers for the Rangers/Capitals NHL regular season game last Sunday, flat in ratings and down 13% in viewership from Bruins/Penguins last year (0.7, 1.1M), and down 13% and 23%, respectively, from Blackhawks/Capitals in 2011 (0.8, 1.2M). The game ranks as easily the lowest rated and least-viewed NHL telecast on NBC this season. (Weekend numbers from Sports Business Daily)
Viewership Down For Nationwide Series at Vegas
- The NASCAR Nationwide Series Sam’s Town 300 from Las Vegas earned a 1.3 U.S. rating and 2.1 million viewers on ESPN2 last Saturday, down 41% in ratings and 39% in viewership from last year’s race on ABC (2.2, 3.5M), and down 28% and 26%, respectively, from the 2011 race on ESPN2 (1.8, 2.9M). Despite the declines, the race earned the third-largest audience of the week for any program on ESPN or ESPN2. (Weekend numbers from Son of the Bronx)
* Does not include CBS’ December 29 Kentucky/Louisville telecast, as final ratings were not available. The game earned a 1.6 overnight.
