Fox Sports yesterday renewed its deal with the BIG3 for another season, and while viewership for the Ice Cube/Jeff Kwatinetz-backed basketball league has not been off the charts, it was well above FS1’s programming in the same slot last year. Heading into the championship, FS1 for nine tape-delayed BIG3 telecasts has averaged 191,000 viewers. That figure is less than half the audience that watched the first three-hour telecast on June 26 from Barclays Center (400,000 viewers). The second telecast from Spectrum Center averaged 235,000, and then no subsequent regular-season airing drew over 200,000 viewers. The BIG3's lowest audience came this past Monday for the semifinals from KeyArena, as that tape-delayed telecast drew 118,000 viewers. That window had competition from a Giants-Browns preseason game on ESPN, WWE telecasts on USA and President Trump's address on the Afghanistan war strategy on cable news nets. However, in the same Monday primetime slots in ’16 from June 27-Aug. 15, FS1 averaged only 105,000 viewers for a mix of UFC specials, the World Poker Tour and repeat episodes of "Speak For Yourself." BIG3 has delivered a 91% increase over that comparable programming from last year.
