ABC’s run of Wednesday night NBA games again topped the sports viewership charts.
Wednesday’s Suns-Mavericks NBA regular season game averaged a 1.1 rating and 1.68 million viewers on ABC, up 24% in ratings and 15% in viewership from Nets-Sixers on the same January night last year (0.9, 1.46M). (Compared to Hawks-Mavericks on the equivalent night of last season, January 18, ratings increased 41% and viewership 37% from a 0.8 and 1.22 million.)
With one game to go, ABC’s Wednesday night games have averaged 1.71 million viewers — up 46% from the Wednesday night average on ESPN last January (1.17M).
The growth on ABC has come at the cost of dramatically lower numbers for ESPN. Each ABC game has aired as part of an overlapping split doubleheader with ESPN, which drew just 604,000 for Wednesday’s Thunder-Spurs nightcap — the network’s least-watched game all season and down a whopping 64% from Grizzlies-Warriors last year (1.67M).
None of the four ESPN Wednesday night games this month have managed to hit the million viewer mark. Including those games, the ESPN/ABC Wednesday night average is 1.27 million, up a modest 8% from last January on ESPN alone.
ESPN fared better with its Auburn-Alabama men’s basketball lead-in, which averaged 840,000. In the same window on ESPN2, Miami-Notre Dame averaged 222,000. Both games topped last year’s comparable ESPN network window, South Carolina-Florida on ESPN2 (198K). The Kansas State-Iowa State nightcap had 360,000 on ESPN2 (+15%).
In other college action, BTN averaged 335,000 for Illinois-Northwestern — down from Indiana-Minnesota last year (344K) — and 264,000 for Maryland-Iowa (+23%). FS1 chipped in 151,000 for Villanova-St. John’s (+70%) and 132,000 for Providence-Seton Hall (-61%).
Beyond basketball, TNT averaged 314,000 for a Hurricanes-Bruins NHL regular season game (-31%) and 235,000 for Blackhawks-Kraken afterward (+30%). The first round of the PGA Tour event at Torrey Pines averaged 196,000 on Golf Channel (-6%)
Wednesday, January 24 sports viewership
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Original chart below:
