The NFL Honors topped the sports viewership charts for Thursday, February 8, while Caitlin Clark set yet another viewership mark.
The annual NFL Honors averaged a combined 2.89 million viewers across CBS (2.48M) and NFL Network (405K) Thursday night, down 6% from last year on NBC and NFL Network (3.08M) and the smallest audience for the event since the last time it aired on CBS three years ago. Despite the decline, the awards ceremony was the most-watched sports program of the night.
The day’s top live sporting event was a Nuggets-Lakers NBA regular season game at 1.31 million viewers on TNT, down 8% from Bucks-Lakers on the same night last year (1.43M). Mavericks-Knicks led-in with 1.29 million, up 7% from Bulls-Nets last year (1.20M). (Versus the equivalent date of last season — February 2 — viewership increased 27% and 10% respectively from 1.03 million for Clippers-Bucks and 1.17 million for Grizzlies-Cavaliers.)
The NBA games were preceded by the unveiling of a Kobe Bryant statue by the Lakers. TNT averaged 468,000 viewers for its pregame show, which included live coverage, while NBA TV chipped in 108,000 for the full ceremony. NBA trade deadline coverage averaged 324,000 across ESPN and ESPN2, with NBA TV adding 40,000.
Shifting to the college game, BTN averaged 657,000 viewers for Clark-led Iowa against Penn State, the network’s largest audience ever for a women’s sporting event. The previous high was set by a Wisconsin-Nebraska volleyball match in October (612K), and the previous high for a women’s basketball game was 421,000 for Iowa-Nebraska last month.
The Clark effect would seem to have grown from last season. Iowa played Indiana on the same Thursday night last year and the game averaged half the audience (325K). BTN is averaging 109,000 viewers for women’s basketball games this season, up nearly three-fourths from last year.
The women’s game was preceded by a men’s matchup between the same teams, which averaged 340,000.
In other college action, ESPN averaged 343,000 for a Notre Dame-Louisville women’s game, while ESPN2 topped out at 250,000 for a competing Memphis-Temple men’s game. Combined, viewership trailed the only ESPN game in the same window last year, an Iowa-Purdue men’s matchup on ESPN2 (719K). FS1 failed to crack the 100,000 mark for either game of its Pac-12 men’s doubleheader, scoring just 56,000 for Arizona State-Colorado and 78,000 for Washington-Oregon.
Returning to ESPN, a Lightning-Islanders NHL regular season game followed Notre Dame-Louisville with 298,000, down 43% from an Avalanche-Lightning Stanley Cup Final rematch last year (526K). Top Rank Boxing closed out the network’s night with 451,000.
Elsewhere, first round coverage of the PGA Tour Phoenix Open averaged 336,000 on Golf Channel — down 36% from last year’s 522,000. Rain affected play.
Not cracking the below chart, ESPN2 averaged 95,000 for an airing of Mina Kimes’ podcast, the most-watched of the network’s daily podcast airings thus far. The FS1 talk show “Undisputed” averaged 65,000, topping only the previous day’s 64,000 as its smallest audience since returning from hiatus.
Thursday, February 8 sports ratings
Updated chart:
Original chart below:
