For the second-straight week, a North Carolina loss to an ACC rival topped the Tuesday sports ratings charts.
Tuesday’s North Carolina-Syracuse men’s college basketball game averaged 1.09 million viewers on ESPN, the largest sports audience of the day and up 49% from Notre Dame-Duke last year (733K). The Tar Heels have played in the night’s most-watched game on consecutive Tuesdays, both upset losses.
The Mississippi-Kentucky lead-out followed with 858,000, up 15% from Kansas-Oklahoma State a year ago (746K).
Over on ESPN2, Iowa State-Cincinnati drew 241,000 (+12%), leading into Oklahoma-Baylor at 199,000 (-43%). Further down the dial, FS1 scored 280,000 for Marquette-Butler (-13%) and 132,000 for Georgetown-Creighton, while ESPNU chipped in 70,000 for FSU-Virginia Tech and 62,000 for Texas A&M-Vanderbilt.
Shifting to the pro game, a Kings-Suns NBA regular season game combined to average 1.00 million across TNT (895K) and truTV (107K) — down 23% from Warriors-Clippers on TNT alone last year (1.29M). Thunder-Magic led in with a combined 931,000 (839K on TNT, 92K on truTV), down 44% from Celtics-Bucks a year ago (1.67M). Coverage of Shaquille O’Neal’s postgame retirement ceremony averaged 19,000 on NBA TV.
There was little else in the way of live sports Tuesday. An RB Leipzig-Real Madrid UEFA Champions League match averaged 100,000 on TUDN. Figures for English-language on CBS were not immediately available.
Tuesday, February 13 sports ratings
Updated chart (now includes UEFA on CBS):
Original chart below:
