Ratings roundup — a record audience for the Premier League, a weak outing for Clippers-Lakers, and a near season-high for college basketball. Plus: mixed results for UFC 283 prelims.
Premier League sees record U.S. audience for Man U-Arsenal
Last Sunday’s Manchester United-Arsenal English Premier League match averaged a combined 1.0 rating and 1.79 million viewers across NBC (0.8, 1.41M) and Telemundo (0.22, 382K), with that viewership figure rising to 2.30 million including additional streaming viewership not tracked by Nielsen (510K) — both records for a Premier League match on U.S. television.
The combined English-language audience of 1.92 million across NBC and digital is also a record for a Premier League match.
Weak outing for Clippers’ rout of Lakers
Tuesday’s Clippers-Lakers NBA regular season game averaged 1.31 million viewers on TNT, down 28% from Mavericks-Warriors in the same window last year (1.81M) and the least-watched game on ESPN or TNT this season to include LeBron James (Heat-Lakers on ESPN earlier this month averaged 1.11 million, but James did not play.)
Earlier in the night, Celtics-Heat averaged 1.05 million — down 31% from Lakers-Nets a year ago (1.52M).
In other action, NBA TV averaged a 0.23 rating and 401,000 viewers for Nets-Warriors on Sunday, its fifth-largest audience this season despite facing an NFL playoff game. The Warriors have played in four of the five most-watched games on NBA TV this season.
MSU-Indiana nears season-high as NFL lead-in
Leading into coverage of an NFL playoff game, last Sunday’s Michigan State-Indiana men’s college basketball game averaged a 1.3 rating and 2.25 million viewers on CBS — trailing only DePaul-Creighton on FOX Christmas Day (2.99) as the most-watched college basketball game of the season. Michigan State has played in two of the top three games this season, with their Champions Classic matchup with Kentucky ranking third (2.03M).
In a competing window on FOX, Butler-UConn averaged a 0.42 and 718,000.
Shifting to the workweek, Kansas-Baylor averaged 1.22 million and Duke-Virginia Tech 1.03 million on ESPN Monday night, up 15% and 49% respectively from last year (Texas Tech-Kansas: 1.06M; Louisville-Virginia: 694K). North Carolina-Syracuse drew 855,000 and Ohio State-Illinois 705,000 on the same network Tuesday, down 8% and 25% respectively from a year ago (Mississippi State-Kentucky: 933K; Michigan State-Illinois: 937K).
UFC 283 prelims up big, down from previous ABC simulcasts
UFC 283 prelims averaged a combined 0.7 rating and 1.10 million viewers across ABC (0.47, 756K) and ESPN (0.20, 346K) opposite the NFL playoffs last Saturday night, up sharply from UFC 270 prelims on ESPN alone last year (0.24, 421K), but down from previous ABC simulcasts (0.8, 1.36M last July; 0.95, 1.80M last June). As goes without saying, those prior simulcasts did not face the NFL.
(Nielsen estimates from Programming Insider, ShowBuzz Daily, network PR)
