College basketball topped the sports viewership charts on a quiet January Monday.
Monday’s Wake Forest-North Carolina men’s college basketball game averaged 1.07 million viewers on ESPN, the largest sports audience of the day and up 3% from Duke-Virginia Tech last year (1.03M). The Cincinnati-Kansas nightcap averaged 937,000, down 23% from Kansas-Baylor a year ago (1.22M).
Shifting to the professional game, NBA TV averaged 428,000 for Spurs-Sixers — in which Sixers C Joel Embiid scored 70 points — up 89% from Hawks-Bulls on the same January night last year (227K). (The equivalent date of last season was Martin Luther King Day.) The Hawks-Kings nightcap had just 222,000, down 8% from Grizzlies-Kings a year ago (240K).
In women’s college action, Utah’s upset of UCLA averaged 178,000 viewers on ESPN2 — down 52% from Iowa-Ohio State last year (368K). The game led into Australian Open quarterfinal action featuring wins by Coco Gauff and Novak Djokovic, which at 564,000 viewers increased 45% from last year (388K).
Elsewhere, English Premier League coverage (Wolves-Brighton) averaged 213,000 on USA Network — down 39% from Tottenham-Fulham a year ago (349K). The Madden Championship Series eSports competition drew 130,000 on TBS. A live Iowa-Minnesota women’s college gymnastics meet plumbed the depths with just 22,000 on BTN.
Monday, January 22 sports viewership
Updated chart:
Original chart below:
