Figures for their 52-point win on Sunday remain to be seen, but the Celtics’ 28-point rout of the Mavericks on Friday scored a 20 percent viewership increase.
Friday’s Mavericks-Celtics NBA regular season game averaged 1.45 million viewers on ESPN, the top sports audience of the day and a 20% increase over Nets-Celtics last year (1.21M). Boston’s 28-point win was the most-watched weeknight NBA game on ESPN in six weeks (1/19 Nuggets-Celtics: 2.02M).
The NBA delivered the top two sports audiences of the day, with the Bucks-Bulls nightcap averaging 1.17 million — down 6% from Grizzlies-Nuggets a year ago (1.24M).
Auto racing placed third and fourth for the day, as the NASCAR Truck Series from Las Vegas averaged 603,000 on FS1 — down from 623,000 last year — and qualifying for the Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix drew 474,000 on ESPN2. In the respective lead-ins, NASCAR Xfinity Series qualifying averaged 324,000 and an F1 practice session drew 189,000.
Further down the dial, second round coverage of the PGA Tour event formerly known as the Honda Classic averaged 344,000 on Golf Channel — down 27% from last year (471K). Second day coverage of the NFL Combine drew 169,000 on NFL Network, up from 160,000 last year.
On a light night in college basketball, Dayton-Loyola Chicago topped the charts with 268,000 viewers on ESPN2 — up from Dayton-Saint Louis in an earlier slot last year (239K). FS1 drew 97,000 for an Air Force-Utah game later in the night — basically even with New Mexico-Colorado State last year (100K) — and ESPNU chipped in 27,000 for Fairfield-Marist.
In a women’s college gymnastics doubleheader, ESPN2 averaged 143,000 for Alabama-LSU and 109,000 for Michigan-Oklahoma, both down from last year’s solo Oklahoma-Florida meet (164K).
Rounding out the day’s slate, BTN averaged 53,000 for a Michigan-Minnesota men’s college hockey game, preceded by Penn State-Ohio State at just 17,000. A live National Lacrosse League match (Toronto-Las Vegas) averaged just 1,000 on ESPNU.
Friday, March 1 sports ratings
Updated chart:
Original chart below, including WWE Smackdown:
