The Pac-12 Championship game delivered its largest audience on record. Plus: recent numbers from the NBA, college basketball and NHL.
Pac-12 title game is most-watched on record
The Utah-USC Pac-12 Championship game averaged 6.23 million viewers on FOX Friday night, the largest audience in the 11-year history of the game. The previous high was just under 6.0 million for Oregon-Arizona in 2014.
Viewership for the Utes’ upset win, which knocked the Trojans out of playoff contention, jumped 45% from Utah-Oregon on ABC last year.
Double-digit declines for recent Warriors games
Friday’s Bulls-Warriors NBA regular season game averaged 1.59 million viewers on ESPN, down double-digits from last year’s higher-profile Suns-Warriors game (~2.0M). It was the third-straight Warriors game to decline double-digits, along with Golden State-Dallas on TNT last Tuesday (0.9, 1.51M) and Clippers-Warriors on ESPN the night before Thanksgiving (0.9, 1.79M).
Despite the declines, the Warriors game was the most-watched on each of the three nights. Bulls-Warriors outdrew its Lakers-Bucks lead-in on Friday (1.43M). The Lakers’ win increased double-digits over last year (Sixers-Hawks: ~1.2M).
Warriors-Mavericks last Tuesday easily outdrew its Clippers-Blazers lead-out (0.6, 1.04M) and Clippers-Warriors on the day before Thanksgiving outdrew its Mavericks-Celtics lead-in (0.9, 1.68M).
UNC-IU top ACC/Big Ten Challenge audience in three years
North Carolina-Indiana was the top draw of last week’s ACC/Big Ten Challenge with a 0.9 rating and 1.63 million viewers on ESPN last Wednesday, the largest audience for the now-defunct series since 2019 (Michigan-Louisville: 1.66M). Ohio State-Duke led in with a 0.7 and 1.27 million. Tuesday’s games were far behind at a 0.57 and 959,000 (West Virginia-Michigan) and a 0.47 and 821,000 (Syracuse-Illinois).
A full average for the ACC/Big Ten Challenge will be posted when available.
Going back to “Feast Week” over Thanksgiving, the most-watched game was Tennessee-Kansas in the Battle 4 Atlantis Championship with a 0.6 and 1.30 million on Black Friday.
Black Friday game lifts NHL on TNT
TNT averaged a 0.22 rating and 488,000 for Penguins-Flyers on Black Friday, the network’s largest NHL audience since October. The Blues-Lightning nightcap had a 0.14 and 332,000. Neither game came close to last year’s Black Friday game on ABC, which averaged more than 1.2 million.
The Black Friday games easily outpaced TNT’s usual Wednesday doubleheaders both this past week (Blackhawks-Blues: 0.17, 264K; Kings-Oilers: 242K) and the prior week (Sabres-Red Wings: 0.20, 314K; Oilers-Blackhawks: 0.14, 239K).
