Stephen Curry and the resurgent Warriors topped the sports viewership charts for Thursday, February 29.
Thursday’s Warriors-Knicks NBA regular season game averaged 1.54 million viewers on TNT, up 7% from Sixers-Mavericks on the same night last year (1.43M) and the most-watched sporting event of the day. TNT coverage was blacked out in the Bay Area and exclusive in New York.
The nightcap, a Heat-Nuggets NBA Finals rematch, averaged 1.12 million — down 25% from Clippers-Warriors a year ago (1.49M). The sharp decline for Heat-Nuggets dragged the full doubleheader to a 9% decline from last year (from 1.46 to 1.32 million).
Shifting to the college game, FS1 averaged 313,000 viewers for a men’s tripleheader of Nebraska-Ohio State (506K), Michigan-Rutgers (241K) and UCLA-Washington (191K) — up 19% from last year’s equivalent windows (263K).
ESPN scored 430,000 for a Virginia Tech-Notre Dame women’s matchup, less than half the audience of last year’s comparable Michigan-Illinois men’s game (1.07M). LSU-Georgia followed with 202,000 on ESPN2, up 35% from a Memphis-SMU men’s game last year. The Tigers’ blowout win was bookended by a pair of men’s matchups as Memphis-ECU drew 140,000 and Gonzaga-San Francisco 211,000.
Moving beyond the hardwood, ESPN averaged 369,000 for an Avalanche-Blackhawks NHL regular season game, up slightly from Capitals-Lightning the prior week (362K). ESPN2 pulled 198,000 for the first practice session of the season-opening Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix.
Opening round coverage of the PGA Tour event formerly known as the Honda Classic pulled 264,000 on Golf Channel, down 23% from last year, when the tournament took place a week earlier on the calendar (342K). The first day of the NFL Scouting Combine averaged 179,000 on NFL Network — up 22% from last year’s 147,000 — with a primetime re-air at 83,000. MLB Spring Training topped out at 148,000 for Phillies-Blue Jays on MLB Network.
Thursday, February 29 sports ratings
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Original chart below:
