Fox Sports 1 earned its largest college basketball audience ever for the second time in a week. Also: a big jump for Lakers-Nets on TNT; a weak outing for Wednesday Night Hockey; numbers for the Pro Bowl Skills Challenge, X Games and PGA Tour.
FS1 sets new college hoops mark for Indiana-Michigan
Thursday’s Indiana-Michigan men’s college basketball game averaged 811,000 viewers on FS1, the network’s largest college basketball audience ever. The previous record was 692,000 for Michigan-Iowa six nights earlier. Earlier in the night, Minnesota-Ohio State averaged 434,000 — down 36% from Michigan State-Iowa in a similar window last year (683K).
In other action, ESPN averaged a 0.7 rating (-12%) and 1.10 million viewers (-6%) for Georgia-Kentucky and a 0.50 (-42%) and 783,000 (-45%) for Miami-Duke on Super Tuesday. The same night, Kansas State-Kansas — which ended with a brawl in the final seconds — averaged a 0.25 and 433,000 (+15%) on ESPN2.
Shifting to the women’s game, Tennessee-UConn averaged 630,000 viewers on ESPN Thursday — up 71% from last year (Notre Dame-Tennessee: 318K) and the most-watched game of the season. The Huskies’ win was the first meeting of the former rivals since 2007.
Big jump for Lakers-Nets
Lakers-Nets averaged 1.63 million viewers on the NBA on TNT Thursday night, up 52% from last year (Sixers-Pacers: 1.07M) and up 36% from 2018 (Sixers-Celtics: 1.20M). Of the 27 TNT windows that can be compared to last year, it was the tenth to increase.
Later in the night, Mavericks-Blazers averaged 1.31 million — down 32% from last year (Lakers-Thunder: 1.93M) and down 12% from 2018 (T’Wolves-Rockets: 1.50M).
Weak outing for Wednesday Night Hockey
Red Wings-Wild averaged 269,000 viewers on the latest edition of NHL Wednesday Night Hockey on NBCSN, down 8% from last year (Capitals-Maple Leafs: 292K) and down 34% from 2018 (Maple Leafs-Blackhawks: 408K). Ratings were not immediately available.
The network fared better a night earlier, as Flyers-Penguins averaged 293,000 on Tuesday — up 37% from last year (Red Wings-Oilers: 214K) and 32% from 2018 (Flyers-Red Wings: 222K).
Miscellaneous: Pro Bowl Skills, X Games, Torrey Pines
The Pro Bowl Skills Challenge averaged 817,000 viewers on ESPN Thursday, up 7% from last year (761K) but down 30% from 2018 (1.17M). … Immediately following the Pro Bowl Skills Challenge, night one of the Winter X Games averaged 305,000 on ESPN — down 1% from last year (307) and down 24% from 2018 (399K). … Thursday’s opening round of the PGA Tour at Torrey Pines averaged 499,000 viewers on Golf Channel, down 9% from last year (546K), down 26% from 2018 (672K), and the lowest since since 2016 (341K).
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 1.24, Programming Insider 1.24]
