A trio of college football bowl games were the most-watched sporting events of December 26.
The Texas State-Rice First Responder Bowl was the most-watched sporting event of Tuesday, December 26, with an average of 2.80 million viewers on ESPN — up 27% from last year’s edition, which aired in an earlier timeslot (1.2, 2.20M). The Bobcats’ win delivered the largest audience in the history of the game (dates back to 2011), topping the previous high of 2.73 million in 2021 (Air Force-Louisville).
Placing second among Tuesday sportscasts was the Kansas-UNLV Cactus Bowl, which averaged 2.69 million on ESPN — up 5% from last year (2.56M) and the top audience for the game since 2018 (TCU-Cal: 2.70M).
Rounding out the bowl game lineup, Minnesota-Bowling Green averaged 2.23 million in the Quick Lane Bowl — down 4% from New Mexico State-Bowling Green last year (2.32M).
Shifting from gridiron to European football, USA Network averaged 603,000 for a Premier League Boxing Day quadrupleheader — up 10% from a tripleheader last year (548K). Aston Villa-Manchester United led the way with 838,000 viewers, the largest audience for any individual Boxing Day match since 2020. Liverpool-Burnley followed placed second with 756,000, followed by Fulham-Bournemouth at 532,000 and Nottingham-Newcastle at 282,000.
Further down the dial, NBA TV averaged 317,000 for an NBA regular season doubleheader of Pacers-Rockets (320K) and Hornets-Clippers (314K).
Tuesday, December 26 sports viewership
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