The NBA and NHL delivered strong viewership on Thursday, January 4.
Thursday’s Nuggets-Warriors NBA regular season game, won by Denver on a buzzer-beating three by Nikola Jokic, averaged 2.10 million viewers on TNT — the largest NBA audience outside of Christmas and the In-Season Tournament since the Opening Week of the season. Overall, it ranks just outside of the ten most-watched games this season (11th).
Viewership more-than-doubled Clippers-Nuggets on the same January date last season (896K). (There were no TNT games on the equivalent night of last season, December 29.)
The Bucks-Spurs lead-in averaged 1.55 million, up 22% from Celtics-Mavericks on the same date last year (1.27M). The full doubleheader averaged 1.83 million, the network’s most-watched night of NBA coverage — excluding the IST — since Opening Week.
In other action, ESPN averaged 846,000 viewers for a Penguins-Bruins NHL regular season game — trailing only the Winter Classic as the most-watched NHL game since the Opening Week of the season. Viewership nearly doubled Capitals-Blue Jackets on the same night last year (450K).
Leading out of the NHL, a Colorado-Arizona men’s college basketball game averaged 410,000 viewers — down 7% from USC-UCLA a year ago (443K). Over on ESPN2, Cleveland State-Wright State pulled 105,000, North Texas-Wichita State 83,000 and Utah-Arizona State 92,000. Shifting to the women’s game, BTN averaged 99,000 for Nebraska-Wisconsin and 91,000 for Michigan-Indiana.
Shifting to golf, opening round coverage of the PGA Tour Tournament of Champions averaged 346,000 on Golf Channel (+8%). In soccer, ESPN Deportes scored 144,000 for a Las Palmas-FC Barcelona La Liga match.
Thursday, January 4 sports viewership
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