An NBA doubleheader topped the sports viewership charts for Friday, March 8, while Caitlin Clark-led Iowa set yet another viewership record.
Friday’s Bucks-Lakers NBA regular season game averaged 1.60 million viewers on ESPN, the largest sports audience of the day and the network’s most-watched weeknight NBA game since January 19 (Nuggets-Celtics: 2.20M). Timberwolves-Cavaliers led-in with 1.21 million, ranking second for the day. ESPN did not carry NBA games on the comparable night last year.
Placing third behind the NBA games, BTN averaged 1.04 million for Iowa-Penn State in the Big Ten women’s basketball tournament — easily the largest women’s sports audience ever on the network. The previous high was 658,000 for the same Iowa-Penn State basketball matchup last month. It also ranks as the most-watched basketball game on BTN this season, regardless of gender, surpassing the same Iowa-Penn State game from last month.
Compared to Iowa’s quarterfinal game against Purdue last year, which also aired on BTN in the same Friday evening timeslot, viewership increased more-than-fourfold from 236,000.
Boosted by the record lead-in, Indiana-Michigan followed with 454,000 — more-than-double Illinois-Maryland in the same window last year (198K). The afternoon games did not fare as well as Ohio State-Maryland drew 196,000 and Michigan State-Nebraska 195,000, but the full quadrupleheader averaged 463,000 viewers — up 132% from 199,000 last year.
In men’s college action, ESPN2 averaged 334,000 for VCU-Dayton and 176,000 for Wichita State-Tulane. FS1 drew 201,000 for a Boise State-San Diego State game that followed ARCA racing.
Moving beyond the hardwood, second round coverage of the PGA Tour Arnold Palmer Invitational averaged 426,000 — down 38% from last year’s 688,000. Qualifying for the Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix averaged 371,000 on ESPN2, down sharply from last year, when qualifying took place on a Saturday afternoon (631K). A practice session led in with 163,000.
The previously-mentioned ARCA race from Phoenix drew 366,000 on FS1, up dramatically from last year on FS2 (172K). It was preceded by NASCAR Cup Series practice at 235,000, also up sharply from last year on FS2 (148K). Indian Wells tennis topped out at 201,000 for Carlos Alcaraz against Matteo Arnaldi.
Friday, March 8 sports ratings
Original chart below, including WWE Smackdown:
