The U.S. women’s national team got another boost from FOX last weekend. In other news, SportsCenter attracted a much smaller postgame audience after the NBA Finals clincher, and the second night of ESPN’s 30 For 30 on the Celtics-Lakers rivalry slipped from night one.
USWNT Hits Another High on FOX
- Last Sunday’s United States-Norway women’s soccer friendly earned a 0.48 final rating and 778,000 viewers on FOX, the team’s most-watched friendly since a match against South Korea prior to the 2015 Women’s World Cup (998K). The previous high was 728,000 for their match against England in this year’s SheBelieves Cup, which also aired on FOX. Last Thursday, U.S.-Sweden pulled 205,000 on ESPN2.
Smaller Audience For SportsCenter After Finals Clincher
- SportsCenter earned 1.1 million viewers after the clinching game of the NBA Finals Monday night, down 50% from last year’s post-clincher edition (2.2M). Keep in mind the obvious caveat that this year’s clinching Game 5 had a smaller audience (24.5M) than last year’s Game 7 (31.0M), and that postgame coverage began later in the night. Compared to SportsCenter after Game 7 of last year’s World Series, which aired after 1 AM ET and followed game coverage that aired on rival FOX, viewership increased 2% (from 1.09M to 1.11M).
Night Two of Celtics-Lakers Doc Dips
- The conclusion of ESPN’s 30 For 30 documentary “Celtics/Lakers: Best of Enemies” earned 1.2 million viewers Wednesday, down from 1.4 million the night before. All told, the series averaged 1.3 million across five hours. As should be no surprise, it was no match for last year’s multi-part 30 For 30, the much-hyped O.J.: Made in America. That five night, 10-hour documentary averaged 2.0 million across ESPN and ABC.
