As it usually does, the NFL topped the sports ratings charts for Saturday, December 23.
Pending results for Bills-Chargers on Peacock, Bengals-Steelers was the top sports program of December 23 with a 7.0 rating and 14.29 million viewers on NBC — the least-watched game on the network this season, with the obvious caveat that Saturday afternoons are not expected to draw on the level of Sunday nights.
As previously noted, figures were not immediately available for the Bills-Chargers nightcap, which aired exclusively on Peacock.
Shifting to the college game, ABC delivered the three largest audiences of the bowl season thus far (as of December 23). The Northwestern-Utah Las Vegas Bowl topped the charts with a 1.7 and 3.09 million, up 24% in ratings and 26% in viewership from Oregon State-Florida in an earlier window last year (1.35, 2.45M). The Duke-Troy Birmingham Bowl followed at a 1.6 and 2.67 million, up 9% and 2% respectively from last year’s Tuesday night edition on ESPN (ECU-Coastal Carolina: 1.45, 2.62M). Finally, the Air Force-James Madison Armed Forces Bowl drew a 1.4 and 2.44 million, up 27% and 23% respectively from last year on ESPN opposite Thursday Night Football.
Over on ESPN, the Northern Illinois-Arkansas State Camellia Bowl drew a 0.9 and 1.57 million, flat and up 2% respectively from last year on a Tuesday afternoon (0.9, 1.55M). The Georgia State-Utah State Idaho Potato Bowl had a 0.6 and 1.15 million, down a tick but up 4% respectively from last year on a different Tuesday afternoon (0.7, 1.11M). The Coastal Carolina-San Jose State Hawaii Bowl had a 0.52 (-10%) and 950,000 (-15%), the smallest audience for the game since at least 2005. The South Alabama-Eastern Michigan Mobile Bowl brought up the rear with a 0.40 (-40%) and 765,000 (-37%), the smallest audience for that game since at least 2006.
As for the ‘other’ football, an Arsenal-Liverpool English Premier League match averaged a combined 0.9 rating and 1.82 million across NBC (0.7, 1.49M) and Telemundo (0.16, 328K). Including a streaming audience of 464,000 on Peacock and other NBC digital platforms (as tracked by Adobe Analytics), the game averaged 2.28 million — the second-largest Premier League audience on record, behind Arsenal-Manchester United last January (2.31M).
Shifting to basketball, FOX averaged a 0.53 and 961,000 for St. John’s-UConn in primetime and a 0.40 and 735,000 for FAU-Arizona in the afternoon. CBS scored a 0.43 and 721,000 for Vanderbilt-Memphis. NBA TV chipped in a 0.16 and 280,000 for Bucks-Knicks.
Saturday, December 23 sports ratings
Updated chart:
