News: Women's Final Four Ratings, NHL, NASCAR

Ratings: Women’s Final Four, NHL, NASCAR

Recent sports TV ratings, including Women’s Final Four ratings and recent NHL action on NBC. In the overnights, UConn’s stunning loss to Notre Dame was no match for their stunning loss to Mississippi State a year earlier.

Women’s Final Four Ratings: UConn Deja Vu Dips

Friday’s Notre Dame-UConn Women’s NCAA Tournament national semifinal earned a 1.5 overnight rating on ESPN2, down 21% from Mississippi State-UConn last year, which marked the end of the Huskies’ 111-game winning streak (1.9), but up 50% from Syracuse-Washington in 2016 (1.0).

The Huskies’ second-straight upset loss in the national semifinals peaked at a 2.1 from 11:45 PM-Midnight ET. Last year’s game peaked at a 2.7 from Midnight-12:15 AM. Hartford-New Haven led all markets with a 16.7 rating, up a tick from last year (16.6).

In the early window, Mississippi State-Louisville delivered a 1.0 overnight, even with last year (South Carolina-Stanford) but down 42% from 2016 on ESPN (UConn-Oregon State: 1.7). Louisville led all markets with a 14.4.

Another 0.7 Rating For NHL on NBC

Flyers-Penguins scored a 0.7 rating and 1.1 million viewers in last Sunday’s NHL Game of the Week on NBC, up a tick in ratings and 13% in viewership from last year (Wild-Red Wings: 0.6, 946K). It was NBC’s fourth-straight game with a 0.7 rating.

Later in the night, Bruins-Wild scored a 0.27 (-10%) and 446,000 (-23%) on NBCSN. In other action, NBCSN scored 309,000 for Rangers-Capitals on Wednesday (-53%) and 219,000 for the same matchup last Monday (-7%). Thursday’s Stars-Wild game had 246,000 (-24%).

Going back further, the March 21 Bruins-Blues game had 513,000 (+20%), the fifth-largest cable audience of the season.

1.2 Million For Monday Afternoon NASCAR

Postponed a day due to rain, NASCAR Cup Series racing from Martinsville (Va.) earned 1.19 million viewers on FS1 Monday afternoon. Last year’s race was run as scheduled on a Sunday and had 4.0 million. Clint Bowyer‘s win was the third-most watched sporting event of the day, behind the primetime Women’s NCAA Tournament Elite Eight games on ESPN.

[ESPN PR; ESPN PR/Twitter 3.31a, 3.31b, 3.31c; ShowBuzz Daily 3.27a, 3.27b, 3.29, 3.30]

Ratings Predictions: Final Four & More

Jon Lewis

Jon Lewis has been covering the sports media industry on a daily basis since 2006 as the founder and main writer of Sports Media Watch. You can contact him here or on the social media websites X (Twitter) or Bluesky.