Audience Analysis: ESPN's Heisman Telecast Down Slightly For Derrick Henry's Win

ESPN drew 3.06 million viewers for its telecast of the Heisman Trophy presentation on Saturday night, which saw Alabama RB Derrick Henry take the award over Stanford RB Christian McCaffrey and QB Deshaun Watson in a relatively close contest. That number is down 3% from 3.15 million viewers in '14, when Oregon QB Marcus Mariota won overwhelmingly. ESPN drew 4.18 million viewers for the '13 telecast, which saw Florida State QB Jameis Winston take the award. 

STAYING GOLDEN: CSN Bay Area on Wednesday drew an 11.42 local rating for Warriors-Suns, marking the net’s best NBA game ever and second-best rating all-time for any telecast. The 11.42 passes the RSN’s previous NBA record of 11.07 set last Friday for Warriors-Celtics. The all-time record remains the Giants’ NL West clincher against the Padres on October 3, 2010. Meanwhile, NBA League Pass this season for the first time is offering single-game and single-team purchases, and the Warriors have the top spot for both new products. The league’s out-of-market game offerings have seen the Warriors take seven of the top 10 spots to date. Warriors-Raptors on Dec. 5 has been the most-viewed game on League Pass. Among single game purchases, the Lakers, Knicks, Cavaliers and Raptors round out the top five, while among single team season-long purchases, the Cavaliers, Lakers, Bulls and Spurs round out the top five.

ANIMAL INSTINCTS: UniMas and Univision Deportes combined to average 2.82 million viewers for Tigres UANL’s win over Pumas UNAM in the second leg of the Liga MX Apertura final last Saturday, marking the most-viewed club soccer match of any type on any net since ’13. UDN, which drew 1.04 million viewers for its simulcast of the game, was the most-viewed sports cable net on Saturday night, outdrawing even ESPN. The audience also was UniMas’ second-best Liga MX final ever, trailing only the Pachuca-Pumas UNAM Clausura final from ’09. Univision also saw its most-streamed Liga MX match ever with Saturday’s game. Meanwhile, the final’s first leg last Thursday drew 1.3 million viewers solely on Univision Deportes.

SIDE SHOW: FS1 on Saturday night drew 1.93 million viewers for UFC 194 Prelims, marking the net’s best UFC prelims on record and the best UFC prelims on any net since Spike drew 1.96 million viewers ahead of UFC 126 in February ’11. The telecast on Saturday ahead of the Conor McGregor-Jose Aldo fight peaked at 2.38 million viewers during the Urijah Faber-Frankie Saenz fight. Last Friday’s McGregeor-Aldo weigh-in also drew 294,000 viewers, marking an FS1 record for a UFC weigh-in.

RECORD SPINNING: NBC will finish ’15 with its best total-day viewership on record, fueled by the addition of NASCAR Sprint Cup telecasts and the net’s first Notre Dame football game, as well as viewership increases for the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, EPL, IndyCar and F1. The gains come despite NBCSN having coverage around the Sochi Games in ’14. NBCSN also is likely to eclipse its ’15 record next year when it adds coverage around the Rio Games.

The charts below list final audience figures for recent sports telecasts.