Fox’ NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix Int’l Raceway yesterday led all sports telecasts over the weekend with a 5.3 overnight Nielsen rating, up 6% from a 5.0 overnight last year and even with the overnight from two years ago. ABC had two NBA telecasts on Sunday. Thunder-Clippers in the late afternoon window earned a 3.8 overnight, edging Heat-Knicks (3.7) in the early window. The two games were basically flat compared to Bulls-Heat and Lakers-Spurs on the same Sunday last year. ESPN led all college basketball telecasts over the weekend with a 2.4 overnight for Miami-Duke on Saturday night. NBC earned a 2.3 overnight for the final round of the PGA Tour Honda Classic, which saw Michael Thompson win his first event on tour. That figure is down 28% from last year, when Rory McIlroy won the event and Tiger Woods finish tied for second. McIlroy withdrew during the second round of this year’s event and Woods finished tied for 37th. NBC did see a good audience for its Blackhawks-Red Wings game yesterday. The game drew a 1.6 overnight, marking NBC’s best NHL regular-season rating ever for a non-regionalized, non-Winter Classic telecast. The game drew a 9.7 local rating in Chicago, which is the market’s best non-Winter Classic rating in the market for a regular-season telecast.
The chart below lists overnight Nielsen ratings from weekend sports telecasts.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
| "ESPN Sports Saturday" |
3/2
|
ABC
|
4:00-6:00pm
|
0.6
|
| NCAA Basketball: Louisville-Syracuse |
3/2
|
CBS
|
12:00-2:15pm
|
1.3
|
| NCAA Basketball: West Virginia-Kansas |
3/2
|
CBS
|
2:15-4:15pm
|
1.3
|
| NCAA Basketball: Kentucky-Arkansas |
3/2
|
CBS
|
4:15-6:30pm
|
1.4
|
| Gymnastics: AT&T American Cup |
3/2
|
NBC
|
1:00-3:00pm
|
0.9
|
| PGA Tour: Honda Classic: Third Round |
3/2
|
NBC
|
3:00-6:00pm
|
1.6
|
| "NBA Countdown" |
3/3
|
ABC
|
12:30-1:00pm
|
1.5
|
| NBA: Heat-Knicks |
3/3
|
ABC
|
1:00-3:30pm
|
3.7
|
| NBA: Thunder-Clippers |
3/3
|
ABC
|
3:30-6:00pm
|
3.8
|
| AMA Supercross |
3/3
|
CBS
|
12:00-1:00pm
|
n/a
|
| PBR: Dickies Iron Cowboy IV |
3/3
|
CBS
|
1:00-2:00pm
|
n/a
|
| NCAA Basketball: FSU-North Carolina |
3/3
|
CBS
|
2:00-4:00pm
|
1.0
|
| NCAA Basketball: Michigan State-Michigan |
3/3
|
CBS
|
4:00-6:15pm
|
1.7
|
| NASCAR Sprint Cup: Phoenix |
3/3
|
Fox
|
3:30-6:30pm
|
5.3
|
| NHL: Blackhawks-Red Wings |
3/3
|
NBC
|
12:30-3:15pm
|
1.6
|
| PGA Tour: Honda Classic: Final Round |
3/3
|
NBC
|
3:15-6:00pm
|
2.3
|
