The U.S. Figure Skating Championships dominated the sports ratings charts for Friday, January 26.
The women’s free skate of the U.S. Figure Skating Championships averaged a 1.4 rating and 2.21 million viewers on NBC Friday night, up 19% in ratings and 18% in viewership from last year (1.2, 1.87M) and the most-watched sporting event of the day.
At the same point in the previous Olympic cycle — 2020 — the women’s free averaged a 1.6 and 2.39 million. Earlier in the day, the men’s short program averaged 222,000 on USA Network (+5%).
Placing second for the day, third round coverage of the PGA Tour event at Torrey Pines averaged a 0.6 and 1.00 million on CBS — down 19% and 12% respectively from last year (0.75, 1.14M).
The day’s top sporting event on cable was a Golden Knights-Rangers NHL regular season game on ESPN at 569,000 viewers — up 46% from Red Wings-Islanders on the same night last year (390K). A Michigan State-Wisconsin men’s college basketball game on FS1 finished not far behind with 543,000, leading into Stanford-Cal at just 193,000. (There were no comparable games on the network last year.)
In the NBA, Mavericks-Hawks — in which Luka Doncic scored 73 points — averaged 468,000 on NBA TV, up 31% from Grizzlies-Timberwolves a year ago (357K). The Blazers-Spurs nightcap pulled 490,000, down 22% from last year’s Raptors-Warriors game (634K).
During the overnight hours, the Aryna Sabalenka-Qinwen Zheng Australian Open women’s final drew a 0.23 rating and 338,000 viewers — down from last year’s final between Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina (379K).
In other action, an Alabama-Florida women’s college gymnastics meet drew 190,000 on ESPN2, outdrawing its Saint Joseph’s-St. Bonaventure college basketball lead-out (149K). In college wrestling, BTN averaged 84,000 viewers for both Iowa-Illinois and Michigan-Ohio State.
Friday, January 26 sports viewership
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Original chart below:
