TNT posted a pair of double-digit declines for its Martin Luther King Day NBA doubleheader. Plus: the NFL boosted FOX college basketball for a second time this season; Peacock set a new mark for English Premier League coverage.
NBA sees declines for MLK Day games
The Martin Luther King Day Suns-Grizzlies NBA regular season game averaged a 0.46 rating and 805,000 viewers on TNT, down 8% in ratings and 11% in viewership from Bucks-Hawks last year (0.50, 908K). The Heat-Hawks lead-in averaged 604,000, down 15% from Bulls-Grizzlies a year ago (707K).
In other action, ABC averaged a 0.8 and 1.35 million for Bucks-Heat on Saturday afternoon — the least-watched NBA game on broadcast TV since Spurs-Pelicans in the “bubble” three seasons ago (1.16M). Outside of the “bubble,” it was the least-watched since a Rockets-Wizards game on NCAA Elite Eight Sunday in 2015 (1.34M).
Warriors-Spurs the previous night averaged a 0.7 and 1.36 million on ESPN, down 14% in ratings and 12% in viewership from last year (Warriors-Bulls: 0.9, 1.55M). Nuggets-Clippers pulled a 0.65 and 1.11 million, down 17% and 20% respectively (vs. Mavericks-Grizzlies: 0.8, 1.40M).
NFL boosts Colorado-UCLA on FOX
Airing immediately after an NFL playoff game, Saturday’s Colorado-UCLA men’s college basketball game averaged a 1.1 rating and 1.98 million viewers on FOX — the fourth-largest audience of the season behind UCLA-Kentucky in the CBS Sports Classic (1.99M), Kentucky-Michigan State in the Champions Classic on ESPN (2.03M) and DePaul-Creighton on FOX in a post-NFL window on Christmas Day (2.99M).
UCLA’s win also ranks as the most-watched Pac-12 intraconference game since 2017.
In other action, Kentucky-Tennessee averaged a 1.0 and 1.67 million on ESPN earlier in the day — ranking fifth for the season behind the above-mentioned games.
Tottenham-Arsenal sets Peacock mark
Sunday’s Tottenham-Arsenal English Premier League match averaged 808,000 viewers on Peacock, per NBC, the largest streaming audience ever for an EPL match. None of the linear TV Premier League matches over the weekend averaged as many viewers, topping out at 689,000 for Bournemouth-Brentford on NBC. Nor did the Real Madrid-Barcelona “El Clasico” on ABC, which averaged 617,000 viewers opposite the NFL playoffs on Sunday.
(Nielsen estimates from Programming Insider 1.18, ShowBuzz Daily 1.18, network PR)
