The NFL Pro Bowl Skills Competition had a light sampling from television viewers. In other news, the Winter X Games started slowly on ESPN and NBCSN scored an increase for its last Wednesday Night Rivalry game before the All-Star break.
Pro Bowl Skills Competition Closer to NHL Than MLB, NBA
- The return of the Pro Bowl Skills Competition, which prior to this year was last held in 2007, delivered 989,000 viewers on ESPN Thursday night. That tops last year’s NHL SuperSkills Competition on NBCSN (870K) but was no match for the MLB Home Run Derby (5.5M) or NBA All-Star Saturday Night (5.6M). The telecast earned a slightly larger audience than the Virginia Tech/North Carolina college basketball game that followed (985K).
Rougher Start For X Games
- Opening night of the 2017 Winter X Games delivered a 0.3 final rating and 498,000 viewers on ESPN Thursday, down a tick in ratings and 24% in viewership from 2015 (0.4, 654K). There was no Thursday coverage on ESPN last year. The telecast was by a wide margin the least-watched primetime show on ESPN or ESPN2 Thursday night, behind the aforementioned Pro Bowl Skills Competition and three college basketball games.
Viewership Bump For NHL Wednesday Night Rivalry
- Flyers/Rangers scored 496,000 viewers on the latest edition of NHL Wednesday Night Rivalry on NBCSN, up 21% from Blues/Rangers last year (411K) but down a third from Blackhawks/Penguins in 2015 (735K). The following night, Blues/Wild earned 330,000; there was no comparable window last year.
(Numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 1.27, 1.26; Programming Insider 1.28)
