The NWSL title game set a new record, but was no match for the following day’s NFL-boosted Skills Challenge. Plus: another down night for the NBA was a strong one for college basketball; the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix was no match for its debut; and more.
Record weekend for NWSL as NFL-fueled Skills Challenge tops title game
Saturday’s Orlando-Washington NWSL title game averaged a 0.48 rating and 968,000 viewers on CBS, up 18% from last year (817K) and the most-watched title game in league history. Orlando’s win, which peaked with 1.1 million viewers, surpassed the previous high of 915,000 for the 2022 final.
Notably, the final was not even the most-watched NWSL telecast of the weekend. Airing adjacent to NFL singleheader coverage, Sunday’s NWSL Skills Challenge averaged 1.54 million viewers — the largest NWSL audience on record and the first in league history to top the million viewer mark. It was also the most-watched sporting event of the day outside of the NFL.
The weekend results are just the latest evidence of the impact of an NFL lead-in has on viewership. There is little to no possibility that a Skills Challenge would beat a championship match by nearly 60 percent in any other scenario.
NBA down again Tuesday opposite season-high college competition
Tuesday’s Suns-Lakers NBA regular season game averaged 1.4 million viewers on TNT, down 30% from Warriors-Kings last year (2.0M). Last year’s game was fully exclusive, while this year’s game co-existed with local RSN coverage in Los Angeles. Earlier in the night, Bucks-Heat averaged 1.03 million — down 23% from the same matchup a year ago (1.3M).
The games faced competition from a Duke-Kansas men’s college basketball matchup on ESPN that averaged 2.02 million, the largest audience of the early college season. The Jayhawks’ win, which peaked with 2.5 million, surpassed both games of the Champions Classic earlier this month (Duke-Kentucky: 1.84M; Michigan State-Kansas: 1.41M).
Returning to the pros, last Friday’s Mavericks-Nuggets game averaged 1.41 million on ESPN — down 11% from Spurs-Warriors on Black Friday last year (1.58M). Warriors-Pelicans led-in with 1.38 million, up 25% from last year’s comparable Heat-Knicks game (1.10M).
F1 Vegas GP down from debut
The second-annual Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix averaged 905,000 viewers on ESPN, down 30% from last year’s inaugural edition (1.3M). George Russell’s win — in which Max Verstappen clinched the season title — peaked with 1.1 million in the opening quarter-hour at 1 AM ET.
Viewership declined despite a much stronger — and more direct — lead-in than a year ago. Coverage followed a four-overtime Texas A&M-Auburn game that averaged 3.7 million viewers and bled into the pre-race show. Last year, the college football lead-in was a Florida-Missouri game that averaged 2.2 million and ended in time for a SportsCenter bridge show.
The F1 season is now averaging 1.08 million viewers, down 7% from 1.16 million at the same point last year.
Plus: WCBB, WNBA Draft Lottery, college volleyball
— Saturday’s Notre Dame-USC women’s college basketball game on NBC averaged 519,000 viewers (including additional streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics), up 19% from last year’s Notre Dame women’s game on NBC against Illinois (435K).
— The November 17 WNBA Draft Lottery averaged 137,000 viewers on ESPN, down 32% from last year, when Caitlin Clark was the expected top pick. UConn G Paige Bueckers is expected to go #1 this year.
— Saturday’s Nebraska-Wisconsin college volleyball match averaged 591,000 viewers on BTN, trailing only the same matchup last year (612K) as the largest college volleyball audience ever on the network. The game had a direct lead-in from a college football game featuring the same two teams (1.14M). Across all networks this season, only Nebraska-Louisville on ABC in September (684K) and Penn State-Wisconsin on NBC earlier this month (672K) averaged more viewers.
