ESPN’s broadcast of the Notre Dame-North Carolina ACC Tournament championship game Saturday night finished with 3.53 million viewers. That is up from 3.17 million viewers last year for Virginia-Duke, which aired on a Sunday afternoon. The Miami-North Carolina matchup in ’13 drew 2.22 million viewers. The “old” Big East, which previously occupied the Saturday night conference championship window on ESPN, drew 3.42 million viewers for Louisville-Syracuse in its final run in the window in ’13. By contrast, this year’s Villanova-Xavier Big East Tournament title game drew 414,000 viewers on FS1 Saturday night. Meanwhile, ESPN drew 3.31 million viewers for the Kentucky-Arkansas SEC tournament championship Sunday afternoon, up from 2.99 million viewers for Florida-Kentucky last year.
BLUE MAN GROUP: ESPN's latest "30 for 30" effort, “I Hate Christian Laettner,” drew 2.32 million viewers Sunday night, the sixth-highest audience for a documentary on the net since the “30 for 30” project began in ’09. Most of the top 10 docs focus specifically on -- or address in some part -- college athletics. Sunday's film, which followed “Bracketology,” was up from 1.46 million viewers for “Requiem For The Big East” in the same time slot last year.
|
ESPN'S MOST-VIEWED DOCUMENTARIES SINCE "30 FOR 30" BEGAN
|
|
RANK
|
DATE
|
FILM
|
VIEWERS (000)
|
|
1
|
12/8/12
|
"You Don't Know Bo"
|
3,602
|
|
2
|
3/13/11
|
"The Fab 5"
|
2,746
|
|
3
|
10/2/12
|
"Broke"
|
2,528
|
|
4
|
12/11/10
|
"Pony Excess"
|
2,517
|
|
5
|
12/12/09
|
"The U"
|
2,368
|
|
6
|
3/15/15
|
"I Hate Christian Laettner"
|
2,319
|
|
7
|
9/24/13
|
"The Book of Manning"
|
2,242
|
|
8
|
11/9/10
|
"The Best That Never Was"
|
2,229
|
|
9
|
11/11/14
|
"Rand University"
|
2,165
|
|
10
|
12/10/11
|
"The Marinovich Project"
|
2,131
|
|
|
|
|
|
NOTES: HBO on Saturday from 11:59pm-12:24am ET averaged 1.15 million viewers for Sergey Kovalev’s eight-round knockout of Jean Pascal....ESPN averaged 906,000 viewers for the NCAA women’s basketball selection show on Monday night, which is the telecast's best audience since ’11....ESPN2 drew 289,000 viewers for NYC FC’s first game in Yankee Stadium last Sunday afternoon....Formula E’s first-ever race in the U.S. -- the Miami ePrix -- drew 25,000 viewers for the live telecast on FS2 on Saturday from 3:30-5:01pm. An FS1 replay following that at 5:30pm drew 89,000 viewers.....NBCSN drew 260,000 viewers for the first race of the F1 season. The race from Australia aired from 12:30-2:46am on Sunday morning. The same opening race last year drew 248,000 viewers with a 1:30am TV start.....NBCSN drew 787,000 viewers for this week's Blackhawks-Rangers "Wednesday Night Rivalry" game, the second-most watched contest of the season on the net behind only the Flyers-Bruins opener, which had 956,000.
The charts below list final audience figures for recent sports telecasts.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RATING
|
VIEWERS (000)
|
| NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: CampingWorld.com 500 (Phoenix) |
3/15
|
Fox
|
3:45-6:45pm
|
4.1
|
7,000
|
| "NCAA Basketball Championship Selection Show" |
3/15
|
CBS
|
6:00-7:00pm
|
3.5
|
5,486
|
| College basketball: Big Ten Championship: Wisconsin-Michigan State |
3/15
|
CBS
|
3:30-6:00pm
|
2.6
|
3,971
|
| PGA Tour: Valspar Championships: Final Round |
3/15
|
NBC
|
3:15-7:00pm
|
2.1
|
3,100
|
| College basketball: Big Ten Semifinals: Michigan State-Maryland |
3/14
|
CBS
|
3:30-6:00pm
|
1.8
|
2,838
|
| NBA: Rockets-Clippers |
3/15
|
ABC
|
3:30-6:30pm
|
1.8
|
2,704
|
| NASCAR Xfinity Series: Axalta Faster. Tougher. Brighter. 200 (Phoenix) |
3/14
|
Fox
|
4:15-6:00pm
|
1.6
|
2,500
|
| NBA: Bulls-Thunder |
3/15
|
ABC
|
1:00-3:30pm
|
1.6
|
2,274
|
| College basketball: Big Ten Semifinals: Wisconsin-Purdue |
3/14
|
CBS
|
1:00-3:30pm
|
1.4
|
2,129
|
| PGA Tour: Valspar Championships: Third Round |
3/14
|
NBC
|
3:00-6:00pm
|
1.2
|
1,700
|
| College basketball: MWC Championship: San Diego State-Wyoming |
3/14
|
CBS
|
6:00-8:15pm
|
1.1
|
1,617
|
| Collebe basketball: A-10 Championship: VCU-Dayton |
3/15
|
CBS
|
1:00-3:30pm
|
1.1
|
1,597
|
| NHL: Red Wings-Penguins |
3/15
|
NBC
|
12:00-3:15pm
|
0.8
|
1,300
|
| "NBA Countdown" |
3/15
|
ABC
|
12:30-1:00pm
|
0.8
|
1,138
|
| "ESPN Sports Saturday" |
3/14
|
ABC
|
4:00-6:00pm
|
0.5
|
638
|
| Liga MX: Leon-Cruz Azul |
3/14
|
Telemundo
|
10:00pm-12:04am
|
0.3
|
519
|
| Red Bull Series: "Double Pipe" |
3/14
|
NBC
|
1:00-2:00pm
|
0.3
|
499
|
| U.S. Skiing specials |
3/14
|
NBC
|
2:00-3:00pm
|
0.3
|
488
|
| Liga MX: Puebla-Chivas de Guadalajara |
3/14
|
Azateca
|
6:55-8:59pm
|
0.2
|
456
|
| "World of X Games: Good Company with Tom Wallisch" |
3/14
|
ABC
|
3:00-3:30pm
|
0.3
|
451
|
| "World of X Games: Winter Stories with James Woods and Kaitlyn Farrington" |
3/14
|
ABC
|
3:30-4:00pm
|
0.3
|
409
|
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RATING
|
VIEWERS (000)
|
| College basketball: ACC Championship: Notre Dame-North Carolina |
3/14
|
ESPN
|
8:30-10:46pm
|
2.2
|
3,526
|
| College basketball: SEC Championship: Kentucky-Arkansas |
3/15
|
ESPN
|
12:57-3:21pm
|
2.1
|
3,314
|
| College Basketball: Big 12 Championship: Iowa State-Kansas |
3/14
|
ESPN
|
6:05-8:19pm
|
1.7
|
2,651
|
| College basketball: ACC Semifinal: Notre Dame-Duke |
3/13
|
ESPN
|
9:50-11:51pm
|
1.7
|
2,617
|
| College basketball: SEC Semifinal: Kentucky-Auburn |
3/14
|
ESPN
|
1:00-3:14pm
|
1.6
|
2,420
|
| "I Hate Christian Laettner" (30 for 30) |
3/15
|
ESPN
|
9:00-10:30pm
|
1.5
|
2,319
|
| NBA: Wizards-Grizzlies |
3/12
|
TNT
|
9:52pm-12:54am
|
1.5
|
2,140
|
| College basketball: ACC Semifinal: North Carolina-Virginia |
3/13
|
ESPN
|
7:00-9:24pm
|
1.3
|
2,054
|
| "Bracketology" |
3/15
|
ESPN
|
7:00-9:00pm
|
1.3
|
1,910
|
| College basketball: Pac-12 Championship: Arizona-Oregon |
3/14
|
ESPN
|
11:01pm-1:03am
|
1.2
|
1,866
|
