The WNBA Playoffs saw big gains on TV compared to ’13. ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews and ABC combined for 10 telecasts and averaged 489,000 viewers, which is the Worldwide Leader’s best average for the event since ’07. That figure is up 90% from last year, when ABC did not carry any games. The WNBA Finals (ABC, ESPN, ESPN2) averaged 659,000 viewers for three games, marking the Finals' best figure since ’03. This year was up 91% from 345,000 viewers last year (ESPN, ESPN2). Meanwhile, NBA TV averaged 114,000 viewers for its WNBA Playoffs coverage, marking a record for the net and up 30% from last season (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
SECOND ACTS: Sunday’s Cardinals-Giants game drew a 21.9 local rating on Phoenix-based KSAZ-Fox, a record for a Cardinals Week 2 telecast (Cardinals)....Cowboys-Titans drew a 20.8 local rating on Nashville-based WZTV-Fox, more than four points below the team’s ’13 regular-season average and the lowest-rated Titans game since a 55-7 loss to the Packers in ’12 drew a 16.5 rating (TENNESSEAN.com, 9/15).
NOTES: Saturday’s Penn State-Rutgers game on Big Ten Network earned a 4.4 local rating in Philadelphia and a 2.2 number in N.Y., the highest-rated college game in either market that day. The matchup was Rutgers’ first Big Ten football game (BTN)....NFL Network drew 343,000 viewers for the Season 4 premiere of “A Football Life” last Friday at 9:00pm ET, which featured a documentary on Pro Football HOFer Joe Greene. That figure is down from 406,000 viewers for the Season 3 premiere last year, which focused on LaDainian Tomlinson and aired on a Tuesday. The Season 2 premiere in ’12, which focused on ESPN’s Tim Tebow and aired on a Wednesday night, drew 342,000 viewers (Karp).
The chart below lists final ratings from recent sports telecasts.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
| NFL: Chiefs-Broncos (56%) |
9/14
|
CBS
|
4:25-7:39pm
|
14.4
|
24,940
|
| "Sunday Night Football": Bears-49ers |
9/14
|
NBC
|
8:31-11:40pm
|
12.9
|
22,155
|
| "Thursday Night Football": Steelers-Ravens |
9/11
|
CBS
|
8:28-11:09pm
|
12.7
|
20,771
|
| NFL: (singleheader) |
9/14
|
Fox
|
1:00-4:05pm
|
11.3
|
19,406
|
| NFL: (regional) |
9/14
|
CBS
|
1:05-4:17pm
|
7.8
|
13,122
|
| "Thursday Night Football Pre-Kick" |
9/11
|
CBS
|
7:58-8:22pm
|
6.7
|
10,632
|
| "Football Night in America" |
9/14
|
NBC
|
7:30-8:15pm
|
5.0
|
8,458
|
| College Football: Georgia-South Carolina* |
9/13
|
CBS
|
5:00-8:47pm
|
4.1
|
6,770
|
| "Fox NFL Sunday" |
9/14
|
Fox
|
12:00-1:00pm
|
2.7
|
4,116
|
| College Football: Tennessee-Oklahoma |
9/13
|
ABC
|
8:07-11:51pm
|
2.2
|
3,761
|
| "The NFL Today" |
9/14
|
CBS
|
12:00-1:05pm
|
2.3
|
3,625
|
| College Football: Arkansas-Texas Tech |
9/13
|
ABC
|
3:32-7:00pm
|
2.1
|
3,279
|
| College Football: Purdue-Notre Dame |
9/13
|
NBC
|
7:30-11:34pm
|
1.9
|
3,131
|
| College Football: (regional) |
9/13
|
ABC
|
12:01-3:31pm
|
1.9
|
2,963
|
| "College Football Today" (extended) |
9/13
|
CBS
|
3:46-5:00pm
|
1.9
|
2,922
|
| College Football: UCLA-Texas |
9/13
|
Fox
|
8:17-11:28pm
|
1.6
|
2,646
|
| PGA Tour: The Tour Championship: Third Round |
9/13
|
NBC
|
2:30-6:15pm
|
1.5
|
2,100
|
| PGA Tour: The Tour Championship: Final Round |
9/14
|
NBC
|
1:30-6:00pm
|
1.4
|
2,000
|
| "The Ultimate Fighter" (replay) |
9/14
|
Fox
|
5:00-6:00pm
|
1.2
|
1,735
|
| Soccer friendly: Mexico-Bolivia |
9/9
|
UniMas
|
9:49pm-12:11am
|
0.8
|
1,527
|
| "College Football Today" |
9/13
|
CBS
|
3:00-3:46pm
|
1.0
|
1,377
|
| MLB: (regional) |
9/13
|
Fox
|
1:00-4:15pm
|
0.9
|
1,252
|
| College Football: Illinois-Washington |
9/13
|
Fox
|
4:15-7:30pm
|
0.7
|
1,047
|
| EPL: Liverpool-Aston Villa |
9/13
|
NBC
|
12:30-2:30pm
|
0.5
|
791
|
| "Inside College Football" |
9/13
|
CBS
|
2:30-3:00pm
|
0.5
|
671
|
| LPGA: Evian Masters: Final Round |
9/14
|
NBC
|
12:00-1:30pm
|
0.5
|
648
|
| "World of X Games: Real Ski Backcountry" |
9/14
|
ABC
|
5:00-6:00pm
|
0.4
|
628
|
| Liga MX: Pachuca-Tijuana |
9/13
|
Telemundo
|
9:00-11:05pm
|
0.3
|
453
|
| Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series |
9/13
|
CBS
|
1:30-2:30pm
|
0.3
|
448
|
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
| "Monday Night Football": Giants-Lions |
9/8
|
ESPN
|
6:55-10:13pm
|
8.4
|
13,728
|
| "Monday Night Football": Chargers-Cardinals |
9/8
|
ESPN
|
10:13pm-1:29am
|
7.1
|
11,515
|
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series:
MyAFibStory.com 400 (Chicagoland) |
9/14
|
ESPN
|
2:00-5:30pm
|
2.3
|
3,711
|
| "Thursday Night Football": Steelers-Ravens |
9/11
|
NFL Net
|
8:28-11:09pm
|
2.2
|
3,431
|
| College Football: ECU-Virginia Tech |
9/13
|
ESPN
|
12:00-4:02pm
|
1.7
|
2,563
|
| "Sunday NFL Countdown" |
9/14
|
ESPN
|
10:00am-1:00pm
|
1.4
|
2,166
|
| "College GameDay" |
9/13
|
ESPN
|
9:00am-12:00pm
|
1.3
|
1,827
|
| College Football: Southern Miss-Alabama |
9/13
|
ESPN2
|
6:14-9:23pm
|
1.1
|
1,784
|
| College Football: USC-Boston College |
9/13
|
ESPN
|
8:00-11:33pm
|
1.1
|
1,749
|
| "NASCAR Countdown" |
9/14
|
ESPN
|
1:00-2:00pm
|
1.1
|
1,656
|
| College Football: Iowa State-Iowa |
9/13
|
ESPN
|
4:02-6:53pm
|
1.0
|
1,656
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
NOTE: * = Start to game was delayed by 90 minutes due to weather.
