Super Bowl postgame coverage had a modest increase on ESPN and an enormous one on Fox Sports 1. In other news, the Super Bowl lead-out show was the least-watched in 14 years, and the NFL Honors delivered its second-smallest audience.
NFL Primetime Up, FS1 Way Up, For Super Bowl Postgame Coverage
- The post-Super Bowl edition of ESPN’s NFL Primetime had 2.4 million viewers on ESPN Sunday night, up 9% from last year (2.2M) but down 14% from 2015 (2.8M). SportsCenter drew 1.4 million immediately afterward (-21%), its smallest audience after the Super Bowl since at least 2012, but still ahead of postgame coverage on competing networks. On Fox Sports 1, postgame coverage had 820,000 — nearly 14 times higher than Fox Sports Live last year (61K) and up 191% from comparable coverage in 2014, the last time sister network FOX had the Super Bowl (280K). The huge jump on FS1 corresponded with 40% decline for NFL Gameday on NFL Network (from 1.2M to 742K).
FOX Has Least-Watched Super Bowl Lead-Out Since 2003
- The Super Bowl lead-out show, the premiere episode of 24: Legacy, had 17.6 million viewers on FOX Sunday night — down 15% from The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS last year (20.6M), down 32% from The Blacklist on NBC in 2015 (25.7M) and easily the least-watched post-Super Bowl show since Alias on ABC in 2003 (17.3M). The show’s 11 PM ET start was the third-latest in the post-Super Bowl timeslot. Ratings in adults 18-49 fell 21% from last year (from 7.7 to 6.1).
NFL Honors Nears Viewership Low
- The annual NFL Honors scored 3.2 million viewers on FOX Saturday night, down 28% from last year on CBS (4.4M) and down 32% from the record-high audience on NBC in 2015 (4.7M). Ratings were not immediately available. It was the second-least watched edition of the NFL Honors, topping only 2014 — the only other edition to air on FOX (3.1M). Head-to-head, the awards show scored a larger audience than the competing Cavaliers/Knicks NBA game on ABC (2.8M) but had a lower rating among adults 18-49 (0.9 to 0.8).
