The NBA edged out a resurgent NIT final to deliver the top sports audience of Thursday, April 4.
Thursday’s Nuggets-Clippers NBA regular season game averaged a combined 1.47 million viewers across TNT (1.43M) and truTV (40K), up a third from Nuggets-Suns last year (1.10M) and the top sports audience of the day.
Kings-Knicks led in with 1.13 million, up 9% from Heat-Sixers a year ago (1.04M). TNT coverage was exclusive in Los Angeles, New York and Sacramento and co-existed with the local RSN in Denver.
Placing second for the night among sportscasts, the Seton Hall-Indiana State men’s NIT championship game averaged 1.41 million on ESPN, up 280% from last year on ESPN2 (UAB-North Texas: 370K) and the most-watched NIT game since Robert Morris upset Kentucky in the first round of the 2013 tournament (1.6M). The Pirates’ win also ranks as the most-watched NIT title game since 2010. The full NIT was the most-watched since 2016.
Leading out of the championship game, the college basketball slam dunk and three-point shooting championship averaged 734,000 viewers — up 194% from last year, when coverage aired in an earlier window on ESPN2 (250K).
Further down the dial, opening round coverage of the PGA Tour Texas Open averaged 362,000 on Golf Channel — up a third from last year (272K). (An earlier version of this post mistakenly said viewership declined 10% from 401,000 last year, but that was actually in comparison to 2022.) The Augusta National Women’s Amateur led in with 129,000 and an LPGA Match Play event led out with 179,000.
A Manchester United-Chelsea English Premier League match averaged a combined 392,000 across USA Network (339K) and Universo (53K). MLB Network drew 186,000 for the first game of a Tigers-Mets doubleheader, 182,000 for regional action featuring Guardians-Twins and 168,000 for White Sox-Royals in primetime.
Thursday, April 4 sports ratings
Updated chart:
Original chart below:
