- Not surprisingly, a 20 game winning streak is very good for ratings. While the numbers for the Houston Rockets’ victory over Atlanta last night are not yet available, the Rockets drew their best ratings in nine years for their victory over New Jersey on Monday. The game, the 19th straight victory for the Rockets, drew a 7.1 rating on FSN Houston, and tied as the third most watched program in prime-time during the 9:00 PM hour.
- Duke/UNC was the most watched college basketball game ever on ESPN, but the game was only barely the most watched cable program of the week. Nickelodeon has been utterly dominating cable ratings as of late, and Spongebob Squarepants did not just come close to the 5.6 million for UNC/Duke, but one episode of the cartoon actually tied the game in household ratings (3.4). 17 episodes of Spongebob finished in the Top 20 cable programs of the week.
- Arena Football is the latest sport to see big gains among young viewers. Through three telecasts, AFL games on ESPN2 have seen a 40% jump in viewership among men 18-34, to 87,000 viewers, 78% higher than the 49,000 men 18-34 watching NHL games on Versus this season. Overall, the AFL on ESPN2 has seen an 8% jump in households this season.
