The NFL — as always — dominated the weekly ratings charts, but from a lesser height than usual.
NFL viewership topped out at 21.73 million on Sunday, marking the first week all season in which no window averaged at least 24 million. The NFL national window was the least-watched since Week 1 (when CBS and FOX cannibalize each other with competing doubleheaders) and Sunday Night Football hit a season-low. Overall, four of Sunday’s five NFL windows declined from last year, the lone exception being the CBS singleheader (+12%).
Shifting to the college game, the controversy swirling around Michigan helped the Wolverines’ win over Penn State to more than nine million viewers — marking the sixth game this season to top the nine million mark. FOX owned the top two audiences of the weekend, with Utah-Washington placing second at more than five million.
With the baseball postseason and NASCAR now over, the NBA delivered the top non-football audience of the week as 1.93 million watched the Lakers and Suns in the In-Season Tournament Friday night.
The post-singleheader window continues to deliver big audiences as 1.76 million watched a “Courage in Sports: Gridiron Greatness” special on CBS Sunday.
Weekly sports ratings, November 6-12
Only events with at least 150,000 viewers are listed. Household ratings of 0.55 or below are shown to the second decimal point.
Sunday, November 12
As mentioned above, four of five NFL windows on Sunday posted a decline from Week 10 last year.
Saturday, November 11
Penn State has now played in two of the six most-watched college football games this season: their losses to Michigan and Ohio State.
Friday, November 10
The NBA In-Season Tournament is now averaging 1.7 million viewers on ESPN, up 55% from last year’s equivalent doubleheaders. Additional details on Friday numbers are available here.
Thursday, November 9
Despite pitting teams with a combined 3-14 record, Thursday Night Football soared more than 40 percent over last year.
Wednesday, November 8
Viewership increased 47 percent for Warriors-Nuggets and 20 percent for Spurs-Knicks on ESPN last Wednesday night.
Tuesday, November 7
No sports program cracked the 800,000 viewer mark last Tuesday, with ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption” taking top honors with 788,000. A UEFA Champions League match on Univision was the top live sportscast with 600,000.
Monday, November 6
Monday Night Football continues to benefit richly from weekly ABC simulcasts, with the broadcast network again contributing more than half the audience.
