ESPN scored the 13 largest sports audiences of Friday, January 12, with an NBA doubleheader topping the list.
ESPN averaged 1.09 million viewers for an NBA doubleheader consisting of Pelicans-Nuggets (1.12M) and Kings-Sixers (1.06M) Friday night, down 19% from the same January night last year (Warriors-Spurs and Nuggets-Clippers: 1.24M). (Compared to the equivalent night of last season, January 6, viewership fell 11% from 1.22 million.)
Despite the decline, the NBA games were the most-watched sports programs of the day. Friday marked a rare case in which both games of ESPN’s doubleheader were flex scheduling selections, replacing the original line-up of Rockets-Pistons and Hornets-Spurs.
As mentioned previously, ESPN delivered the top 13 sports audiences of the day, with studio programming rounding out the rest of that list.
Big Ten basketball was the night’s top sporting event outside of the NBA, with Minnesota-Indiana averaging 382,000 on FS1 and Nebraska-Iowa 363,000 on Big Ten Network. The latter game was preceded by a wrestling meet involving the same two schools that averaged 162,000. In other college basketball action, DePaul-Villanova drew 214,000 on FS1 an Dayton-Duquesne 170,000 on ESPN2.
Elsewhere, second round coverage of the PGA Tour Sony Open averaged 265,000 on Golf Channel — down 21% from last year (337K) — and a LigaMX doubleheader on TUDN averaged 132,000. Not making the below chart, a Bayern Munich-Hoffenheim Bundesliga match averaged 77,000 on ESPN2 and the men’s free skate of the European Figure Skating Championships averaged 60,000 on E!.
Friday, January 12 sports ratings
Updated chart:
Original chart below:
