Thursday Night Football had its least-watched season in nearly a decade, but still managed a double-digit increase in adults 18-34. Plus: declines for the NBA and NHL, and the least-watched Louisville-Kentucky game in years.
Thursday Night Football hits low in year one on Amazon, but up among young adults
The first season of Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime averaged 9.58 million viewers (11.3 million per Amazon’s internal metrics), down from last year on FOX and NFL Network (12.9M, per Sports Business Journal) and the lowest average for the series since 2013 — the last year it aired exclusively on NFL Network.
Though down overall, viewership actually increased from last year in adults 18-34, rising 11% from 1.9 to 2.1 million. Among men 18-34 in particular, viewership increased 18% — the highest year-over-year increase any NFL package has seen in that demo since 2014. Adults 18-34 made up 22% of the TNF audience, compared to 14% for the other NFL packages.
NBA sees slow start to new year
In its first Thursday doubleheader since the opening week of the season, TNT averaged 1.27 million viewers for Celtics-Mavericks and just 896,000 for the Nuggets’ rout of the Clippers, down 1% and 23% respectively from last year’s equivalent games (Celtics-Knicks: 1.28M; Clippers-Suns: 1.16M). Ratings were not immediately available.
The previous night, ESPN averaged 1.11 million for the LeBron-less Lakers against the Heat and 1.03 million for Bucks-Raptors — down 4% and 39% respectively from last year (Jazz-Nuggets: 1.16M; Warriors-Mavericks: 1.69M).
Big drop for NHL on ESPN, TNT, this week
Thursday’s Capitals-Blue Jackets NHL regular season game averaged 450,000 viewers on ESPN, down 32% from Wild-Bruins last year (658K), but still the network’s most-watched game since November 1 (Bruins-Penguins: 699K). ESPN also averaged 391,000 for Stars-Kings on Tuesday night.
Over on TNT, Devils-Red Wings averaged 399,000 viewers Wednesday night — down 36% from Blues-Penguins last year (626K) — followed by Lightning-Wild at 302,000.
Louisville-Kentucky hits new viewership low
Last Saturday’s Louisville-Kentucky men’s college basketball game averaged a 0.6 rating and 1.06 million viewers on CBS, marking the least-watched game between the rivals in at least a decade. The previous low was 1.09 million for the 2018 game on ESPN2.
Keep in mind the game aired directly opposite Kentucky’s football team in the Music City Bowl on ABC (3.0M).
CBS fared better for the second game of its tripleheader, earning a 0.7 and 1.29 million for Oklahoma State-Kansas. The late game — San Diego State-UNLV opposite a College Football Playoff semifinal — brought up teh rear with a 0.5 and 893,000.
(Nielsen estimates from network PR, ShowBuzz Daily 1.4, 1.5 a, b, 1.6, Sports Business Journal 1.5)
