Ratings roundup — Lakers-Warriors delivered the NBA’s top non-Christmas audience thus far; the PGA Tour’s Phoenix Open saw a ratings drop; Cincinnati topped the local Super Bowl ratings; and more
Lakers-Warriors top non-Christmas game entering All-Star break
Last weekend’s Lakers-Warriors NBA Saturday Primetime game on ABC averaged a 1.9 rating and 3.61 million viewers, marking the largest NBA audience of the season outside of Christmas. Including Christmas games, it ranks fourth.
Golden State’s narrow win — which increased 29% in ratings from Nets-Warriors on the same weekend last year (1.5, 2.56M) — ranks as the most-watched Saturday Primetime game since Warriors-Sixers in March 2019 (3.63M).
In other action, ABC pulled a 1.0 and 1.87 million for Hawks-Celtics on Super Bowl Sunday — down 13% in ratings from the last time it aired a Super Bowl Sunday game two years ago (Pelicans-Rockets: 1.2, 1.99M).
Shifting to the workweek, Sixers-Bucks averaged 1.54 million on TNT Thursday; Jazz-Lakers drew 1.31 million and Nets-Knicks 1.26 million on ESPN Wednesday; Celtics-Sixers had 1.19 million and Clippers-Suns 1.18 million on TNT Tuesday. Viewership for all five games increased at least 20% from last year’s equivalent windows.*
Cincy tops local Super Bowl ratings
Cincinnati led all markets for last week’s Super Bowl 56 with a 46.1 rating and 84 share on NBC, followed by Detroit (45.9/79), Pittsburgh (45.6/74), Columbus, Ohio (45.4/80) and Kansas City (44.6/76). Los Angeles ranked out of the top ten at a 36.7/77. Due to a change in Nielsen methodology, this year’s numbers are not directly comparable to past years.
In other Super Bowl action, the postgame edition of ESPN’s “NFL Primetime” averaged 1.16 million viewers last Sunday, the show’s smallest post-Super Bowl audience since at least 2009. Keep in mind it aired opposite the Olympics. ESPN’s “NFL Countdown” pregame was also down, averaging 1.12 million.
On NFL Network, the “NFL Gameday Final” postgame averaged 702,000 and the “NFL Gameday Morning” pregame 460,000.
PGA’s Phoenix Open runs long, sees drop
Final round coverage of the PGA Tour Phoenix Open, which ran long and concluded after the Super Bowl had begun, averaged a 2.0 rating and 3.59 million viewers on CBS last Sunday — down a tick in ratings from last year (2.1, 3.69M) but up 16% from two years ago (1.75, 2.87M).
Third round action the previous day drew a 1.5 and 2.43 million, flat in ratings compared to last year (1.5, 2.24M).
NASCAR Duel, UEFA, NHL, UFC
NASCAR’s Duel at Daytona averaged 1.46 million viewers on FS1 Thursday night, the smallest audience for the event in at least 12 years. … Tuesday’s Paris St. Germain-Real Madrid UEFA Champions League Round of 16 match averaged 957,000 viewers across Univision and TUDN, the third-largest audience ever for the round of 16 on a single U.S. network. The same match on the CBS broadcast network averaged 769,000. … Wednesday’s Avalanche-Golden Knights NHL regular season game averaged 257,000 viewers on TNT, preceded by Panthers-Hurricanes at 234,000 — marking the fourth and fifth times in the past six games that the network has failed to crack the 300,000 viewer mark. … UFC 271 prelims averaged a 0.48 rating and 901,000 viewers on ESPN last Saturday night, doubling UFC 270 prelims opposite the NFL playoffs three weeks earlier (0.24, 421K).
* Due to Nielsen’s undercount of last year’s out-of-home viewing, viewership comparisons to last year will be minimized — if done at all — for the foreseeable future.
