The Lakers may be struggling on the court, but they remain a ratings draw. Plus: viewership is on the rise for the Premier League and MLS; the latest NHL numbers on TNT; and more.
Big gains for struggling Lakers against East rivals
Friday’s Lakers-Celtics NBA regular season game averaged 1.74 million viewers on ESPN, up 64% from the comparable 2019 window (Spurs-Sixers: 1.06M). Two nights earlier, Lakers-Bucks averaged 1.47 million — up 45% from 2019 (Warriors-Mavericks: 1.02M). Mavericks-Suns followed both games, averaging 1.36 million Wednesday (-16%) and 1.37 million Friday (-17%). Ten of the past 15 national NBA telecasts have increased over 2019.
EPL, MLS viewership up
As of last week, the ongoing English Premier League season was averaging 609,000 viewers across NBC Sports’ English and Spanish-language networks — up 14% from last year and the highest at this point of the season since 2015-16.
In other soccer action, the recently-completed MLS regular season averaged 276,000 viewers across the ESPN family of networks — up 18% from last year (233K) and the networks’ most-watched season under their current media rights deal. The Univision family of networks averaged 245,000 (+22%) also a new high. Viewership on Fox Sports increased 4%, though exact figures were not immediately available.
Shifting to national team play, the November 12 United States-Mexico World Cup qualifier averaged 2.9 million viewers on Univision and 1.32 million on ESPN2 and the November 16 Jamaica-United States match drew 200,000 on Universo (English-language coverage streamed on Paramount+).
TNT sees better numbers for latest late night NHL game
Last Wednesday’s Blackhawks-Kraken NHL regular sesaon game averaged 373,000 viewers on TNT, up 29% from Blackhawks-Golden Knights on NBCSN in 2019 (289K) and the most-watched NHL game since Golden Knights-Avalanche on ESPN October 26 (385K). For the third-straight week, TNT’s actual game broadcast averaged fewer viewers than the pregame show (429K).
Plus: NHRA, college hoops, Combate Global
The NHRA season averaged 513,000 viewers across Fox Sports, up 3% from last year (497K) and up 5% from 2019 (487K). … College basketball’s Gavitt Games averaged 274,000 viewers on FS1, up 13% from 2019 (242K), topped by Indiana-St. John’s last Wednesday night (395K). … The November 12 edition of Combate Global mixed martial arts averaged 679,000 viewers on Univision, the series’ second-largest audience in four years on the Univision networks.
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 11.17, 11.18, 11.22, network PR]
