The end of the holidays marked the end of nightly, blockbuster sports viewership for the time being, with regular season college basketball topping a quiet Tuesday, January 2.
An ESPN regular season men’s college basketball doubleheader delivered the top two sports audiences of Tuesday, January 2, with Syracuse-Duke averaging 1.19 million viewers and North Carolina-Pittsburgh clocking in at 1.11 million. The average of 1.15 million marked a slight increase over the equivalent date last year, when ESPN drew 1.14 million for a solo LSU-Kentucky game.
Placing third for the night, a Magic-Warriors NBA regular season game averaged 496,000 on NBA TV — the network’s sixth-largest audience this season. The Warriors have played in three of its top six games. The Sixers’ rout of the Bulls led-in with 289,000.
Returning to the college game, an Iowa-Wisconsin men’s matchup averaged 417,000 viewers on BTN, followed by Northwestern-Illinois at 219,000. FS1 drew 151,000 for DePaul-UConn, 143,000 for Butler-St. John’s and 136,000 for New Mexico-Colorado State. ESPN2 scored 115,000 for ECU-FAU.
In other action, a Brighton-West Ham English Premier League match drew 356,000 on USA Network, down from Newcastle-Arsenal last year (429K). Rafael Nadal’s return to tennis against Dominic Thiem averaged 38,000 on Tennis Channel in the morning, with an afternoon re-air at 66,000. Naomi Osaka’s loss to Karolina Pliskova was the top match of the day with 86,000.
Tuesday, January 2 sports ratings
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Original chart below:
