A pair of lopsided NBA games topped the sports viewership charts for Thursday, January 11.
TNT averaged 1.37 million viewers for an NBA regular season doubleheader Thursday night, up 1% from the same January night last year (1.36M). (Compared to the equivalent Thursday of last season, January 5, viewership increased 26% from 1.09 million.)
The Bucks’ 33-point rout of the Celtics, which at one point was so lopsided that TNT briefly switched to whiparound coverage, averaged 1.43 million (+12%). The Suns’ 18-point win over the Lakers, which was not as close as the final score, followed with 1.32 million (-7%).
Shifting to the college game, Michigan State-Illinois led the way with 571,000 on FS1 — more than four times higher than last year’s comparable Arizona State-Oregon game (138K) — preceded by Michigan-Maryland at 332,000 (flat). Over on the ESPN networks, Gonzaga-Santa Clara drew 347,000 on ESPN and FAU-Tulane 240,000 on ESPN2, both down significantly from last year’s equivalent windows (Gonzaga-BYU: 660K; Michigan-Iowa: 767K). UCLA’s 90-44 loss to Utah drew 179,000 on ESPN2, down a third from Southern Miss-Marshall last year.
Beyond basketball, coverage of Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots farewell press conference averaged 558,000 on SportsCenter, higher than its “First Take” lead-in (494K) or “Pat McAfee Show” lead-out (293K).
ESPN drew 327,000 for a Maple Leafs-Islanders NHL regular season game — down 27% from Maple Leafs-Red Wings a year ago (446K).
Opening round coverage of the PGA Tour Sony Open averaged 222,000 on Golf Channel, down 19% from last year’s 274,000.
In soccer, an FC Barcelona-Osasuna Super Copa match averaged a combined 232,000 across ESPN Deportes (127K) and ESPN2 (105K).
Thursday, January 11 sports ratings
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Original chart below:
