On an extremely light day of live sports, the PGA Tour Phoenix Open delivered the largest live sports audience on television.
Second round coverage of the PGA Tour Phoenix Open averaged 655,000 viewers on Golf Channel Friday, up 5% from last year (624K) and a three-year high. In a rarity for golf on cable, the telecast was the most-watched live sporting event of the day. The PGA Tour nearly tripled taped primetime coverage of LIV Golf at Las Vegas on The CW, which averaged 238,000.
Placing second for the night, NBA TV averaged 570,000 viewers for a Pelicans-Lakers NBA regular season game — the network’s third-largest audience of the season behind Cavaliers-Warriors on November 11 (645K) and Spurs-Suns on November 2 (580K). Hawks-Sixers led-in with 368,000. On the same night last year, ESPN carried a doubleheader of Hornets-Celtics (969K) and Cavaliers-Pelicans (1.07M).
With ESPN skipping its usual NBA doubleheader, the most-watched live event on the ESPN networks was a Dayton-VCU men’s college basketball game on ESPN2 at 310,000 viewers — up 137% from Kent State-Buffalo last year (131K). The ESPN flagship carried a women’s college sports doubleheader, with Texas-UCLA softball at 297,000 viewers and an Arkansas-Florida gymnastics meet at 253,000.
In other college action, BTN averaged 245,000 for a Penn State-Iowa wrestling meet, preceded by Michigan-Nebraska at 142,000 — up 71 and 35 percent respectively from last year (Michigan-Iowa: 143K; Nebraska-Ohio State: 105K).
Not making the below chart, the Venezuela-Dominican Republic Caribbean World Series final averaged 91,000 on ESPN Deportes; a Penn State-Minnesota men’s college hockey game pulled 56,000 on FS1.
Friday, February 9 sports ratings
Updated chart:
Original chart below (includes Super Bowl Commericals special, WWE):
