The Iron Bowl's return to ESPN last Saturday averaged a 7.4 final rating and 13.5 million viewers in primetime, the highest-rated and most-watched regular-season college football game ever on the net, surpassing the previous record of 10.6 million viewers for USC-Ohio State in '09. The Auburn-Alabama game contributed to ESPN having its most-viewed regular-season Saturday (August-December) on record (total-day audience). Meanwhile, the game also earned 475,000 unique viewers and an average minute audience of 119,000 on the WatchESPN app, product records for the regular season (ESPN).
HOOPS HYPE: FS Southwest finished the month of November with an 8.0 local rating in San Antonio for Spurs game telecasts, marking the highest-rated month of November yet for the RSN. The 8.0 rating passes the previous mark of a 7.5 set in ’07. The Spurs also had two local games on KENS-TV in November that averaged a 10.4 rating. The Spurs' 8.0 season average leads all NBA teams in local ratings to date, ahead of the Cavaliers on FS Ohio (7.2) and Heat on Sun Sports (6.2) (THE DAILY)....CSN Chicago drew a 4.78 local rating for Bulls games in November, up 31% from a 3.66 last year in the same period (CSN)....Bucks games on FS Wisconsin averaged a 2.5 local rating in Milwaukee during the first month of the season, up 270% from last year (BIZJOURNALS.com, 12/3).
NOTES: AMC’s “The Walking Dead” continues to take the No. 1 spot among adults 18-49 this fall, dethroning NBC’s “SNF,” which had held the top spot since ’07. “The Walking Dead” beat “SNF” for five of its eight episodes this fall among that demographic (AMC)....FS Midwest drew a 4.9 local rating in St. Louis for Blues games last month, marking the RSN’s best figure on record for the month of November (BIZJOURNALS.com, 12/2)....The CFL Calgary Stampeders' 20-16 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in Sunday's Grey Cup averaged 4.1 million viewers on TSN and RDS, marking the most-watched sports program of the broadcast year in Canada (TSN).
The charts below list final audience figures from recent sports telecasts. Several programs and networks were still delayed at presstime due to Nielsen's Thanksgiving holiday delay.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
| NFL: Patriots-Packers (98%) |
11/30
|
CBS
|
4:25-7:30pm
|
17.6
|
30,900
|
| NFL: Eagles-Cowboys (Thanksgiving) |
11/27
|
Fox
|
4:30-8:00pm
|
14.2
|
32,000
|
| NFL: Seahawks-49ers (Thanksgiving) |
11/27
|
NBC
|
8:31-11:20pm
|
11.4
|
22,850
|
| "Sunday Night Football": Broncos-Chiefs |
11/30
|
NBC
|
8:32-11:13pm
|
12.5
|
21,105
|
| NFL: (singleheader) |
11/30
|
Fox
|
1:00-4:05pm
|
9.6
|
15,682
|
| "Fox NFL Special" |
11/27
|
Fox
|
4:00-4:30pm
|
6.1
|
13,989
|
| National Dog Show |
11/27
|
NBC
|
12:00-2:00pm
|
5.1
|
10,300
|
| "Football Night in America" |
11/30
|
NBC
|
7:30-8:15pm
|
5.9
|
8,349
|
| College Football: (regional) |
11/29
|
ABC
|
3:39-7:17pm
|
2.4
|
4,004
|
| "Fox NFL Sunday" |
11/30
|
Fox
|
12:00-1:00pm
|
2.6
|
3,849
|
| College Football: Oregon-Oregon State |
11/29
|
ABC
|
8:07-11:48pm
|
1.9
|
3,301
|
| College Football: Stanford-UCLA |
11/28
|
ABC
|
3:51-6:46pm
|
1.9
|
2,930
|
| College Football: Arizona State-Arizona |
11/28
|
Fox
|
3:30-7:00pm
|
1.3
|
2,113
|
| College Football: Notre Dame-USC |
11/29
|
Fox
|
3:45-7:00pm
|
1.3
|
1,995
|
| Liga MX: Club America-UNAM Pumas |
11/29
|
Univision
|
5:55-8:01pm
|
0.8
|
1,768
|
| NHL: Rangers-Flyers |
11/28
|
NBC
|
1:00-3:30pm
|
0.8
|
1,100
|
| Liga MX: Pachuca-Tigres UANL |
11/26
|
Telemundo
|
9:00-11:08pm
|
0.6
|
1,073
|
| "1962 U.S. Open" (Jack Nicklaus golf special) |
11/27
|
Fox
|
3:00-4:00pm
|
0.5
|
1,009
|
| College Football: Grambling State-Southern |
11/29
|
NBC
|
2:30-6:00pm
|
0.7
|
1,000
|
| ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating: Japan |
11/30
|
NBC
|
4:00-6:00pm
|
0.6
|
844
|
| EPL: Sunderland-Chelsea |
11/29
|
NBC
|
12:30-2:30pm
|
0.5
|
802
|
| "Red Bull Series: Direct Ride" |
11/30
|
NBC
|
12:30-2:00pm
|
0.4
|
678
|
| "College Football Saturday" |
11/29
|
Fox
|
3:00-3:45pm
|
0.4
|
542
|
| "Dew Tour: Breckenridge Preview" |
11/30
|
NBC
|
2:00-3:00pm
|
0.3
|
479
|
| Skiing: USSA Aspen Winternational |
11/30
|
NBC
|
3:00-4:00pm
|
0.3
|
388
|
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
| College Football: Auburn-Alabama |
11/29
|
ESPN
|
7:45-11:50pm
|
7.4
|
13,529
|
| "Monday Night Football": Ravens-Saints |
11/24
|
ESPN
|
8:15-11:39pm
|
6.7
|
10,872
|
| College Football: Florida-Florida State |
11/29
|
ESPN
|
3:37-7:10pm
|
3.5
|
5,964
|
| College Football: Virginia-Virginia Tech |
11/28
|
ESPN
|
8:00-11:59pm
|
1.7
|
3,049
|
| College Football: LSU-Texas A&M |
11/27
|
ESPN
|
7:25-10:55pm
|
1.4
|
2,905
|
| College Football: South Carolina-Clemson |
11/29
|
ESPN
|
12:00-3:25pm
|
1.3
|
2,017
|
| "Sunday NFL Countdown" |
11/30
|
ESPN
|
10:00am-1:00pm
|
1.4
|
1,981
|
| "Monday Night Countdown" |
11/24
|
ESPN
|
6:00-8:15pm
|
1.3
|
1,955
|
| "College GameDay" |
11/29
|
ESPN
|
9:00am-12:00pm
|
1.3
|
1,919
|
| College Football: TCU-Texas |
11/27
|
FS1
|
7:30-11:04pm
|
0.7
|
1,309
|
