Like LeBron James scoring at will on an otherwise empty court, the NFL Draft continues to dominate the post-apocalyptic wasteland of pandemic-era sport.
Friday’s second round of the NFL Draft averaged 8.2 million viewers across the ESPN family of networks, NFL Network and digital platforms, per Nielsen fast-nationals — a record for the second day of the event.
The audience, which peaked at 10 million viewers from 8:30-8:45 PM ET, surged 40% from the previous high of 5.7 million set last year.
It ranks second among all sportscasts since the Super Bowl, behind only night one on Thursday (15.6M). That comes with the caveat that there was no NCAA Tournament this year. No non-football sporting event has had a larger audience since a Clippers-Lakers NBA game on Christmas (8.8M).
The second night of the draft typically competes with the NBA and NHL playoffs and a full slate of Major League Baseball games, but all of those events were wiped out by efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
Cleveland was the top market for Friday’s coverage with a 9.5 rating, followed by Atlanta (8.8), Kansas City (8.6) and Columbus, Ohio (8.4). Milwaukee and Philadelphia tied for fifth with an 8.3.
The first two days of the NFL Draft averaged 11.6 million viewers (+37%), on pace to obliterate the all-time record for the event — last year’s 6.1 million.
[Nielsen estimates from NFL PR/Twitter 4.25]
