Ratings roundup — an NFL lead-in gave the Big East college basketball’s biggest audience of the season; the Premier League returned with a Boxing Day high; and more.
NFL lifts DePaul-Creighton to college hoops season-high
Fueled by an NFL lead-in, the Christmas Day DePaul-Creighton men’s college basketball game averaged a 1.4 rating and 2.99 million viewers on FOX — marking the largest college basketball audience ever on FOX and the most-watched game of the season on any network. The previous season-high was 2.03 million for Kentucky-Michigan State on ESPN in the Champions Classic.
Not counting conference tournaments, only one regular season college basketball game in the past three years has averaged a larger audience — North Carolina-Duke in Mike Krzyzewski’s final home game last March (3.98M).
Premier League returns from World Cup break with Boxing Day high
Monday’s Aston Villa-Liverpool English Premier League match averaged 795,000 viewers on USA Network, a figure that rises to 838,000 including additional streaming data not tracked by Nielsen — the largest audience on record for a Premier League Boxing Day match on cable.
The three-game Boxing Day slate — which this year doubled as the league’s return from World Cup hiatus — averaged 575,000 viewers on USA Network (including additional streaming data), the highest Boxing Day average on cable since 2015.
In other EPL action, Nottingham-Manchester United averaged 521,000 and Bournemouth-Chelsea 510,000 on Tuesday; Manchester City-Leeds drew 433,000 on Wednesday.
Plus: Doncic, NHL, Musial Awards
NBA TV averaged 376,000 viewers for Mavericks F Luka Doncic’s 60-point triple-double against the Knicks Tuesday night, its fourth-largest audience of the season. Outside of Christmas, there have been no NBA games on the ESPN/ABC or TNT since Grizzlies-Suns on ESPN last Friday, which drew 1.35 million. … TNT averaged 534,000 viewers for Wednesday’s Bruins-Devils NHL regular season game, the largest NHL audience on any network since November 1 (Bruins-Penguins: 699K) and largest on TNT since October 26 (Rangers-Islanders: 550K). … Airing adjacent to NFL coverage, last Saturday’s Musial Awards averaged 1.63 million viewers on CBS, a figure on par with the Heisman Trophy Presentation on ESPN two weeks earlier (1.65M). (Named for Cardinals great Stan Musial, the Musial Awards is a sportsmanship-focused event that has aired on CBS dating back to 2019.)
(Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 12.28, 12.29, 12.30)
