Final Ratings: NASCAR, UFC Help Fuel FS1 Record; NBA Celebrity Game Has New High

FS1 averaged 964,000 viewers on a 24-hour basis last Saturday, marking a new record for the net since its August launch. The total-day audience also was the seventh-best in the combined history of FS1/Speed. FS1 was fueled by 3.5 million viewers on Saturday night for the NASCAR Sprint Unlimited, an audience that marks the best for any telecast in FS1's six months on the air. The previous high was 2.2 million viewers for an Oregon State-Oregon football game last November. FS1 on Saturday also saw its best “UFC Fight Night” audience. The telecast, highlighted by the Lyoto Machida-Gegard Mousasi bout, averaged 1.4 million viewers following the NASCAR race. Meanwhile, FS2 averaged 257,000 viewers for the Arsenal-Liverpool FA Cup fifth round match last Sunday, marking a new audience record for that net since its launch last August (Fox).

THE STARS ARE OUT: The NBA All-Star Celebrity game last Friday drew its best viewership since the event was introduced in ’03. ESPN averaged a 1.5 rating and 2.5 million viewers for the telecast from 7:00-9:04pm ET, which aired up against the Sochi Games on NBC (that telecast started at 8:00pm). The rating for the event has been flat the last four years, but viewership is up 8% from last year. The last time the event aired up against the Winter Games in ’10, it drew a 1.3 rating and 2.1 million viewers. Louisville was the top-rated market for Friday night’s telecast with a 3.4 local rating, followed by Greensboro with a 3.1 rating (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).

WELCOME TO THE LOO: In St. Louis, Dan Caesar notes over the last two Saturdays, the “rising” St. Louis Univ. men’s basketball team “outdrew the long-entrenched” Univ. of Missouri team. ESPN’s VCU-St. Louis game last Saturday at 2:00pm drew a 3.9 local rating in St. Louis, while ESPN2’s Tennessee-Missouri game later in the afternoon drew a 2.7 rating. The week before, both played in a game starting at 4:00pm. ESPN’s St. Louis-La Salle game drew a 1.9 local rating, while FS Midwest drew a 1.7 rating for Missouri-Ole Miss (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 2/21).

DIAL TONE: In Boston, Gayle Fee wrote WEEI-AM “got more bad ratings news this week, taking another pummeling" from WBZ-FM during January and "stoking rumors that a shakeup is coming on the longtime sports talk station.” WBZ was No. 1 among males 25-54 in January, “while WEEI was sixth.” The “only bright spot” for Entercom-owned WEEI was in the morning drive, where John Dennis and Gerry Callahan “continued to show signs of life, finishing fourth with adult men,” while WBZ' “Toucher & Rich” ranked No. 1. WEEI’s struggles “fueled rumors” that new Entercom Boston VP & Market Manager Phil Zachary “would be shaking up the midday and afternoon-drive shows” (BOSTON HERALD, 2/20).

The charts below list final ratings from recent sports telecasts. Figures for ABC and CBS were not available at presstime.