NHL All-Star festivities topped a whisper-quiet Friday night of live sports.
NHL All-Star Friday averaged 823,000 viewers on ESPN, down 20% from 1.02 million last year and the smallest audience for the Friday night festivities since 2019 on NBCSN (612K). Despite the decline, the telecast still delivered the largest sports audience of the day.
No other live sporting event hit the 500,000 viewer mark, with a Butler-Creighton men’s college basketball game on FS1 placing second at 484,000 viewers, nearly tripling last year’s comparable Boise State-San Diego State game (129K). Ohio State-Iowa led in with 465,000 and San Jose State-Nevada led out with 121,000 (+38%). In other college action, ESPN2 averaged 215,000 for St. Bonaventure-Dayton (+9%) and 130,000 for Toledo-Akron.
Second round coverage of the PGA Tour at Pebble Beach delivered 462,000 viewers on Golf Channel, down 7% from last year (497K), while a Warriors-Grizzlies NBA regular season game on NBA TV chipped in 384,000 — down 12% from Suns-Celtics on the same February night last year (435K). (Versus Grizzlies-Timberwolves on the equivalent date of last season, January 27, viewership actually increased 8% from 357,000.)
In other action, an Ohio State-Penn State wrestling meet averaged 200,000 viewers on BTN — up 17% from the same matchup on the same night last year (171K) — preceded by Iowa-Michigan at 148,000 (+4%).
One re-air of the NFL Pro Bowl Skills Challenge averaged 243,000 on NFL Network and another drew 138,000 on ESPN2. An American Kennel Club “NFL Dog Plays of the Year” special on ESPN averaged 283,000.
Friday, February 2 sports ratings
Updated chart:
Original chart below (including WWE):
