Recent sports TV ratings, including iRacing, the NBA 2K Players Tournament, Basketball Hall of Fame announcement and the latest wave of classic games.
NASCAR iRacing dips, but again tops million mark
Live NASCAR iRacing averaged a 0.7 rating and 1.18 million viewers on FOX and FS1 Sunday afternoon, down a tick in ratings and 12% in viewership from the previous week (0.8, 1.34M). The telecast ranked second among weekend sportscasts behind a re-air of last year’s National Dog Show on NBC (0.8, 1.23M).
In other iRacing action, NBCSN averaged 162,000 for an IndyCar simulation on Saturday. According to Sports Business Daily, the simulated race averaged “about 55%” of the audience for last year’s real race at the same track (Barber).
Nearly 400K for NBA 2K on ESPN
The debut telecast of the NBA 2K Players Tournament, pitting Kevin Durant vs. Derrick Jones Jr., averaged a 0.25 and 387,000 on ESPN Friday night. Later in the night, ESPN2 averaged a 0.15 and 382,000 for Deandre Ayton vs. Zach LaVine and a 0.14 and 350,000 for Harrison Barnes vs. Trae Young.
The ESPN2 windows easily outdrew ESPN’s competing presentation of the Disney movie “Glory Road” (289K).
The tournament was far less of a draw on Sunday, averaging 131,000 viewers over four hours on ESPN2.
Viewers again tune in for Bryant
The announcement of the Basketball Hall of Fame Class, led by the late Kobe Bryant, averaged 252,000 viewers on ESPN Saturday afternoon. It led into a rebroadcast of Bryant’s final game, Jazz-Lakers in 2016, which averaged 260,000. ESPN previously rebroadcast the game on the day after Bryant died in January, averaging 1.1 million.
On Sunday, a rebroadcast of Bryant’s last NBA Finals game — Celtics-Lakers Game 7 in 2010 — averaged a 0.55 rating and 808,000 viewers on ABC.
ESPN and ABC also re-aired games featuring the other Hall of Fame inductees. ABC on Saturday averaged a 0.47 and 671,000 for a re-air of Lakers-Celtics Game 6 in 2008, which marked Kevin Garnett’s lone NBA title victory. Coverage was cut off for breaking news, with the conclusion averaging a 0.43 and 602,000.
ESPN averaged 161,000 viewers for Nets-Spurs Game 6 in 2003, which saw Tim Duncan nearly achieve a quadruple-double en route to his second title.
Encores: Super Bowl 46, ANWA, UK-KU, Wrestlemania
FOX averaged a 0.55 rating and 826,000 viewers for a re-air of Super Bowl 46 (Packers-Steelers) Sunday, up from a re-air of Super Bowl 51 (Patriots-Falcons) the previous week. … NBC’s Sunday re-air of last year’s Augusta National Women’s Amateur averaged a 0.45 and 648,000, not far behind last year’s live final round of the US Women’s Open (0.5, 728K). … CBS averaged a 0.38 and 609,000 for the 2012 Kentucky-Kansas NCAA men’s basketball final Sunday, its least-watched NCAA Tournament rebroadcast (10 telecasts) … ESPN averaged a 0.30 and 421,000 for Wrestlemania 35 Sunday night, well below its first two Wrestlemania broadcasts.
