The NBA on ABC topped the chart for the second-straight Wednesday.
ABC averaged a 1.0 rating and 1.58 million viewers for a Pelicans-Warriors NBA regular season game Wednesday night, the top sports audience of the day and up 65% from Bucks-Hawks on ESPN the same January night last year (955K). (Compared to Bucks-Raptors on the equivalent date of last season — January 4 — viewership increased 53% from 1.03 million.)
New Orleans’ blowout win was the second of five Wednesday night games added to ABC’s schedule due to the now-completed Hollywood strikes that have delayed the start of the television season. Bulls-Knicks the prior week averaged a 1.0 and 1.64 million. Both games ranked first for the night on television in adults 18-34, but placed second in 18-49 to “The Price is Right at Night” on CBS.
Pelicans-Warriors was the first game of an overlapping, split doubleheader on ABC and ESPN. The Nuggets-Jazz nightcap averaged just 733,000 viewers, down 16% from Suns-Nuggets on the same night last year (876K). In both weeks ABC has carried a Wednesday night game, the ESPN nightcap has declined by double-digits.
The overall doubleheader averaged 1.14 million viewers, up 25% from last year (915K).
Shifting to college basketball, North Carolina-NC State averaged 1.10 million on ESPN — ranking second for the night among sporting events — and Clemson-Virginia Tech just 179,000 on ESPN2. In the same window last year, ESPN2 averaged 695,000 for Alabama-Tennessee. Later in the night, Oklahoma-TCU drew 173,000 on ESPN2 and Arkansas-Georgia 130,000 on ESPNU.
In other college action, BTN averaged 362,000 for Wisconsin-Ohio State, 122,000 for Northwestern-Penn State and 116,000 for Washington State-USC, while FS1 drew 265,000 for UConn-Xavier and 216,000 for Providence-St. John’s.
Moving beyond basketball, TNT averaged 362,000 for Wild-Stars and 278,000 for Golden Knights-Avalanche in an NHL regular season doubleheader, up 40 and 28 percent respectively from last year’s doubleheader of Predators-Maple Leafs (258K) and Sharks-Kings (217K).
Wednesday, January 10 sports viewership
Updated chart:
Original chart below:
