Each NBA TV partner wanted a part of F LeBron James’ return to the Cavaliers, and the early numbers did not disappoint. TNT had the top telecast on opening week, averaging 4.0 million viewers for the Knicks-Cavaliers game on Oct. 30. The Thursday game had competition from a strong Florida State-Louisville game, as well as “Thursday Night Football.” The Knicks-Cavaliers figure compares to 5.4 million viewers for the opening Bulls-Heat game last year on a Tuesday, which had little to no competition. Meanwhile, ESPN averaged 3.4 million viewers for the combo of Cavaliers-Bulls and Lakers-Clippers last Friday, marking the second-best opening week doubleheader on record for the net. Cavaliers-Bulls alone drew 3.9 million viewers, up 58% from the comparable Heat-Nets game last year. NBA TV drew 836,000 viewers for Cavaliers-Trail Blazers on Tuesday, marking the net’s second-best “Fan Night” telecast on record and third-best regular-season telecast on record (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
TIGER TALES: ESPN scored its best regular-season cable TV college football audiences of '14 during Week 10. Leading the way was Auburn-Ole Miss last Saturday night with 5.8 million viewers. That topped the record set just days before with FSU-Louisville (5.0 million viewers on Thursday night) (Karp).
NFL NOTES: Sunday's Cardinals-Cowboys game averaged a 28.3 local rating on Phoenix-based KSAZ-Fox, making it the Cardinals' most-watched road game ever (Cardinals)....The Jaguars have seen a viewership decrease the last two weeks on WJAX-CBS. Browns-Jaguars in Week 7 averaged 148,000 viewers, followed by 139,000 for Dolphins-Jaguars in Week 8 and 125,000 for Sunday's Jaguars-Bengals game. It is "unusual for a national game to top a local game," but Sunday's Broncos-Patriots national window game on CBS drew 129,000 viewers on WJAX (JACKSONVILLE.com, 11/4)....The Week 9 Saints-Panthers "Thursday Night Football" matchup drew a combined 374,000 viewers on Charlotte-based WBTV-CBS and NFL Network (BIZJOURNALS.com, 11/4).
The chart below lists final ratings from recent sports telecasts.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
| NFL: Broncos-Patriots (92%) |
11/2
|
CBS
|
4;25-8:01pm
|
16.8
|
29,094
|
| NFL: (singleheader) |
11/2
|
Fox
|
1:00-4:05pm
|
13.2
|
22,265
|
| "Sunday Night Football": Ravens-Steelers |
11/2
|
NBC
|
8:30-11:30pm
|
11.1
|
18,595
|
| NFL: (regional) |
11/2
|
CBS
|
1:03-4:05pm
|
5.8
|
9,259
|
| "Football Night in America" |
11/2
|
NBC
|
7:30-8:15pm
|
3.9
|
6,400
|
| College Football: Georgia-Florida |
11/1
|
CBS
|
3:30-7:14pm
|
3.7
|
5,711
|
| "Fox NFL Sunday" |
11/2
|
Fox
|
12:00-1:00pm
|
3.5
|
5,266
|
| College Football: (regional) |
11/1
|
ABC
|
3:30-7:08pm
|
2.7
|
4,434
|
| College Football: Notre Dame-Navy |
11/1
|
CBS
|
8:00-11:41pm
|
2.3
|
3,892
|
| "The NFL Today" |
11/2
|
CBS
|
12:00-1:03pm
|
2.5
|
3,639
|
| College Football: Arkansas-Mississippi State |
11/1
|
ABC
|
8:07-11:43pm
|
2.1
|
3,618
|
| Breeders' Cup Classic |
11/1
|
NBC
|
8:00-9:00pm
|
1.7
|
2,616
|
| College Football: Stanford-Oregon |
11/1
|
Fox
|
7:30-11:00pm
|
1.5
|
2,479
|
| Street League Skateboarding |
11/2
|
Fox
|
5:00-6:00pm
|
1.1
|
1,683
|
| College Football: Air Force-Army |
11/1
|
CBS
|
11:30am-3:00pm
|
1.1
|
1,663
|
| "College Football Countdown" |
11/1
|
ABC
|
3:00-3:30pm
|
0.7
|
981
|
| Rugby: U.S. Eagles-All Blacks (New Zealand) |
11/1
|
NBC
|
3:30-6:00pm
|
0.6
|
927
|
| TCS New York City Marathon |
11/2
|
ABC
|
4:00-6:00pm
|
0.7
|
921
|
| F1: U.S. Grand Prix (Circuit of the Americas) |
11/2
|
NBC
|
3:00-5:30pm
|
0.6
|
788
|
| F1: U.S. Grand Prix qualifying |
11/1
|
NBC
|
1:00-3:30pm
|
0.5
|
700
|
| Figure Skating: ISU Grand Prix (Canada) |
11/2
|
NBC
|
1:00-2:30pm
|
0.5
|
624
|
| "World of X Games: Big Wave Hellmen" |
11/2
|
ABC
|
3:00-4:00pm
|
0.5
|
579
|
| "F1 Countdown" |
11/2
|
NBC
|
2:30-3:00pm
|
0.4
|
577
|
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
| "Monday Night Football": Colts-Giants |
10/27
|
ESPN
|
8:15-11:46pm
|
11.4
|
18,809
|
| "Thursday Night Football": Saints-Panthers |
10/30
|
NFL Net
|
8:27-11:24pm
|
4.2
|
6,880
|
| College Football: Auburn-Ole Miss |
11/1
|
ESPN
|
6:58-10:41pm
|
3.4
|
5,797
|
| College Football: Florida State-Louisville |
10/30
|
ESPN
|
7:25-11:08pm
|
3.1
|
4,972
|
| NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: AAA Texas 500 |
11/2
|
ESPN
|
3:00-7:25pm
|
2.8
|
4,749
|
| NBA: Knicks-Cavaliers |
10/30
|
TNT
|
8:02-10:42pm
|
2.6
|
4,024
|
| NBA: Cavaliers-Bulls |
10/31
|
ESPN
|
8:04-10:55pm
|
2.4
|
3,877
|
| NBA: Clippers-Lakers |
10/31
|
ESPN
|
10:55pm-1:15am
|
1.8
|
2,884
|
| College Football: Arizona-UCLA |
11/1
|
ESPN
|
10:41pm-1:42am
|
1.7
|
2,705
|
| "Sunday NFL Countdown" |
11/2
|
ESPN
|
10:00am-1:00pm
|
1.7
|
2,552
|
