A double-overtime thriller between the Lakers and Bucks led the sports viewership charts for Tuesday, March 26.
Tuesday’s Lakers-Bucks NBA regular season game averaged 1.43 million viewers on TNT, more than double Heat-Raptors on the same night last year (687K) and the most-watched sportscast of the day. TNT coverage was blacked out in Los Angeles and exclusive in Milwaukee.
The Mavericks-Kings nightcap averaged a combined 1.18 million across TNT (1.01M) and truTV (169K), down 6% from Pelicans-Warriors a year ago (1.26M). TNT coverage was exclusive in both Dallas and Sacramento.
Shifting to the college game, ESPN averaged 1.03 million for Georgia-Ohio State and 1.02 million for Cincinnati-Indiana State in an NIT doubleheader — the two most-watched NIT games, including the championship, since 2017 (TCU-Georgia Tech: 1.1M). Viewership increased 68 and 29 percent respectively from last year’s equivalent quarterfinals (North Texas-Oklahoma State: 611K; Wisconsin-Oregon: 791K).
In the CBI, High Point-Arkansas State ranked far behind with 101,000 on ESPN2, followed by Seattle-Fairfield at just 52,000.
There was little else of note beyond the hardwood. ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption averaged 781,000, the largest audience for the show since the day after the Super Bowl. A late night Argentina-Costa Rica men’s soccer friendly averaged 153,000 on Fox Deportes. A live Michigan State-Northwestern men’s gymnastics meet averaged just 2,000 viewers on BTN.
Tuesday, March 26 sports ratings
Updated chart:
Original chart below:
