A Big 12 rivalry game topped the sports viewership charts for a quiet Monday, February 5.
Monday’s Kansas-Kansas State men’s college basketball game averaged 1.22 million viewers on ESPN, down 8% from Texas-Kansas last year (1.33M), but still the largest sports audience of the night.
Miami-Virginia led in with 631,000, unsurprisingly down 31% from Duke-Miami a year ago (916K).
Speaking of Miami, a Suns-Heat NBA regular season game averaged 452,000 on NBA TV in the competing window — up from Clippers-Nets on the same night a year ago (322K). The Sixers-Blazers nightcap drew just 182,000, down sharply from Bucks-Blazers last year (329K). (Versus the equivalent night of last season, both games declined from 498,000 and 323,000 respectively for a doubleheader of Lakers-Nets and Hawks-Blazers.)
Beyond the hardwood, a Manchester City-Brentford English Premier League match averaged 285,000 on USA Network. Super Bowl Opening Night averaged 278,000 on NFL Network, up from a combined 255,000 across NFL Network (136K) and ESPN2 (119K) last year.
Returning to college hoops, ESPN2 averaged 179,000 for a Louisville-NC State women’s game — up 60% from Virginia Tech-NC State in an earlier window last year (112K) — and 72,000 for a Southern-Jackson State men’s matchup.
Not making the below list, the ESPN podcast “First Draft” averaged 88,000 viewers on ESPN2, easily the most-watched of the network’s week-old slate of daily podcast airings. On Nickelodeon, a “Spongebob” Super Bowl special averaged 115,000.
Monday, February 5 sports ratings
Updated chart:
Original chart below (includes WWE):
