A potential NBA Finals preview between the Celtics and Nuggets topped the sports viewership charts for Thursday, March 7, but it could not quite match Knicks-Kings a year ago.
Thursday’s Celtics-Nuggets NBA regular season game averaged 1.25 million viewers on TNT, down 1% from Knicks-Kings last year (1.27M) but still the most-watched sporting event of the day. TNT coverage was blacked out in Boston and exclusive in Denver. (Last year’s Knicks-Kings game co-existed with local RSNs in both home markets.)
The Nuggets’ narrow win had to contend with the State of the Union address, which may have impacted the numbers. (On the night of last year’s State of the Union, which took place in February, TNT averaged 2.98 million for Thunder-Lakers — the game in which LeBron James set the all-time NBA scoring record.)
Earlier in the night, TNT averaged 1.15 million for Heat-Mavericks — down 16% from Warriors-Grizzlies last year (1.37M). TNT coverage was exclusive in Miami and co-existed with the local RSN in Dallas.
No other live sportscast on Thursday managed even 400,000 viewers. First round coverage of the PGA Tour Arnold Palmer Invitational averaged 339,000 viewers on Golf Channel, down 30% from last year (483K). College basketball topped out at 335,000 for Rutgers-Wisconsin on FS1. In a rarity, three Pac-12 games went head-to-head at virtually the same time, with ESPN averaging 259,000 for Arizona-UCLA, FS1 195,000 for Washington-Washington State and ESPN2 140,000 for Colorado-Oregon.
Nebraska-Purdue topped the second day of the Big Ten women’s basketball tournament with 128,000 viewers on BTN, followed by Penn State-Wisconsin at 95,000, Michigan-Minnesota at 91,000 and Maryland-Illinois at a mere 56,000.
In the NHL, Blues-Devils averaged 326,000 on ESPN — not much higher than the Braves-Red Sox Spring Training game on the network hours earlier (303K).
An F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix practice session drew 157,000 on ESPN2 and an all-MLS Concacaf Champions Cup match — Nashville vs. Lionel Messi and Inter Miami — pulled 137,000 on FS2. Naomi Osaka’s rout of Sara Errani in the Indian Wells tennis tournament averaged 123,000 on Tennis Channel.
Finally, data that was requested by a reader and may be of interest to some. Minneapolis-St. Paul affiliate KSTC averaged the following ratings for the Minnesota Boys State Hockey Tournament quarterfinals: a 3.6 for the late game, 2.6 for the 6:00 PM CT window, 2.9 for the 1:30 PM CT window and 1.8 for the 11 AM CT window.
Thursday, March 7 sports ratings
Updated chart:
Original chart below:
