The NBA’s scaled back Martin Luther King Day slate was not much of a draw; plus, recent numbers for the NHL, college basketball and more.
NBA MLK Day viewership sinks in earlier windows
With the NFL taking over primetime on Martin Luther King Day, TNT failed to crack the one million viewer mark for either of its matinee games — averaging 707,000 for Bulls-Grizzlies and 908,000 for Bucks-Hawks. Viewership declined 3% and 57% respectively from the equivalent windows last MLK Day (Suns-Grizzlies: 727K; Bucks-Nets: 2.11M).
The network rebounded on Thursday with 1.52 million for Pacers-Warriors (+18% from Pelicans-Jazz last year) and 1.42 million for Suns-Mavericks (-17% from Lakers-Bucks last year).
Over on ESPN, Hornets-Celtics averaged 1.06 million on Wednesday (-6% from Celtics-Sixers last year) and Clippers-Nuggets just 921,000 (+2% from Suns-Rockets last year). Going back to January 14, the network scored 1.55 million for the Warriors’ rout of the Bulls (+19% from Mavericks-Bucks last year) and 1.40 million for Mavericks-Grizzlies (-15% from Pelicans-Lakers last year).
Quieter week for NHL
TNT averaged 430,000 viewers for Maple Leafs-Rangers and 230,000 for Avalanche-Ducks on Wednesday night, up 90% and 4% respectively from the comparable windows on NBCSN last year (Oilers-Maple Leafs: 226K; Wild-Ducks: 222K). The following night, ESPN pulled 315,000 for Avalanche-Kings, its least-watched NHL window thus far. The previous low was 385,000 for Golden Knights-Avalanche in October.
Georgetown-St. John’s scores with NFL lead-in
Airing immediately after an NFL Wild Card game, last Sunday’s Georgetown-St. John’s men’s college basketball game averaged a 1.2 rating and 2.02 million viewers — the largest audience yet for a Big East intra-conference game on FOX. Ratings fell a tick but viewership increased 1% compared to last year’s post-Wild Card college basketball game, Oklahoma-Kansas on CBS (1.2, 2.00M).
In other action on Fox Sports, Thursday’s Purdue-Indiana game drew 954,000 viewers on FS1 — the network’s most-watched college basketball game yet.
Plus: gymnastics, golf and sports talk
Last Sunday’s Florida-Georgia women’s college gymnastics meet averaged a 0.4 rating and 624,000 viewers on ABC, trailing only last year’s national championship as the most-watched college gymnastics telecast since 2011. … Last week’s PGA Tour Sony Open averaged 314,000 viewers on NBC and Golf Channel, up 21% from last year (259K). Combined with a 17% increase for the previous week’s Tournament of Champions, this year marks the first time in a decade that the first two events of the year have increased double-digits. … The sports talk morning shows “Get Up!” (658K), “First Take” (918K), “Undisputed” (442K) and “The Herd” (290K) each hit all-time record-highs last Monday.
