As it usually does on Mondays, college basketball delivered the largest sports audience of February 12.
Monday’s Kansas-Texas Tech men’s college basketball game averaged 1.09 million viewers on ESPN, the largest sports audience of the day and up 30% from Texas-Texas Tech last year (836K). Wake Forest-Duke led-in with 999,000, down 2% from Miami-North Carolina a year ago (1.02M).
No other live sportscast cracked even the 400,000 viewer mark. NBA TV averaged 360,000 for a Nuggets-Bucks NBA regular season game, up from Nuggets-Heat on the same night last year (284K), followed by Timberwolves-Clippers at 323,000.
The day after the Super Bowl brought elevated viewing to the ESPN studio shows. “Pardon the Interruption” led the way with 870,000, up 7% from the day after the Super Bowl last year (814K). “First Take” averaged 854,000 (+13%), “Get Up!” 682,000 (+5%), “Around the Horn” 570,000 (+22%), “The Pat McAfee Show” 488,000 and “NFL Live” 483,000 (+5%).
An afternoon replay of the Super Bowl averaged 202,000 on NFL Network.
In other action, a Chelsea-Crystal Palace English Premier League match averaged 276,000 — down from Everton-Liverpool last year (360K). An Arizona-USC women’s college basketball game drew 118,000 on ESPN2, down 58% from a West Virginia-Baylor men’s matchup last year (283K).
Not making the below chart, a Rutgers-Penn State wrestling meet clocked in at 99,000. A Nickelodeon Super Bowl highlight show also had 99,000.
Monday, February 12 sports ratings
Updated chart:
Original chart below (includes WWE):
