ESPN finished with 1.43 million viewers for the Feb. 4 premiere of its latest “30 for 30” documentary, “The ’85 Bears.” That audience is just below the 1.49 million viewers for “Four Falls of Buffalo,” which had the benefit of a lead-in from the Heisman Trophy ceremony. Among some other NFL-focused “30 for 30” projects, the doc on the Bears' Super Bowl-winning team topped “Elway to Marino” from April ’13 (1.06 million viewers), “Run Ricky Run” from April ’10 (972,000 viewers) and “The Band That Wouldn’t Die” from October ’09 (707,000 viewers).
FOLLOW THE LEADER: ESPN drew 3.23 million viewers for Thunder-Warriors last Saturday night, marking the net’s best regular-season game since Cavaliers-Bulls during opening week of the ’14-15 season. Saturday's game also marked WatchESPN’s most-streamed NBA regular-season game on record. Meanwhile, ESPN2’s “First Take” last month had its best January audience on record with 456,000 viewers (10:00am-12:00pm window). The last five months of the show are its five most-viewed months on record. ESPN2’s “Mike & Mike” also had its second-best January audience on record (299,000 viewers) in the 6:00-10:00am window.
OLD WORLD IN THE NEW WORLD: Fox on Saturday aired its second live Bundesliga match, with Bayern Munich taking on Bayer Leverkusen. The net drew 492,000 viewers for the broadcast from 12:30-2:30pm ET, up 5% from 468,000 for Stuttgart-Hamburg last week. The audience also is the best on record for a live Bundesliga match in the U.S. Fox Deportes drew another 303,000 viewers for Bayern Munich-Bayern Leverkusen. Meanwhile, NBC on Saturday in the same window drew 609,000 viewers for Southampton-West Ham, marking the net's least-viewed EPL match this season to date.
DOGS & CATS, LIVING TOGETHER! Animal Planet drew 2.2 million viewers for the first run of “Puppy Bowl XII” last Sunday from 3:00-5:02pm ET up against Super Bowl pregame coverage. By comparison, CBS drew 12.9 million viewers in the same window for “The Super Bowl Today.” Last year, the premiere of “Puppy Bowl XI” drew 2.77 million viewers. Meanwhile, Hallmark on Sunday from 12:00-3:00pm drew 756,000 viewers for “Kitten Bowl III,” down from 1.33 million viewers last year.
The chart below lists select audience figures from recent sports telecasts.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
| Super Bowl 50: Broncos-Panthers |
2/7
|
CBS
|
6:39-10:22pm
|
46.6
|
111,864
|
| "Hyundai Kickoff Show" |
2/7
|
CBS
|
6:00-6:39pm
|
29.7
|
65,156
|
| "The Super Bowl Today" |
2/7
|
CBS
|
5:00-6:00pm
|
13.8
|
27,260
|
| "The Super Bowl Today" |
2/7
|
CBS
|
4:00-5:00pm
|
8.4
|
15,204
|
| "The Super Bowl Today" |
2/7
|
CBS
|
3:00-4:00pm
|
6.1
|
10,586
|
| "The Super Bowl Today" |
2/7
|
CBS
|
2:00-3:00pm
|
4.7
|
7,988
|
"Super Bowl's Greatest
Halftime Shows" |
2/5
|
CBS
|
9:00-10:00pm
|
3.4
|
5,588
|
| "Phil Simms All-Iron Team" |
2/7
|
CBS
|
1:00-2:00pm
|
3.1
|
5,070
|
| "NFL Honors" |
2/6
|
CBS
|
9:00-11:00pm
|
2.8
|
4,428
|
| "Road to the Super Bowl" |
2/7
|
CBS
|
12:00-1:00pm
|
2.6
|
4,077
|
"Super Bowl's Greatest
Commercials Countdown" |
2/6
|
CBS
|
8:00-9:00pm
|
2.4
|
3,899
|
"Super Bowl 50:
Before They Were Pros" |
2/7
|
CBS
|
11:00am-12:00pm
|
2.3
|
3,430
|
PGA Tour: Waste Management
Phoenix Open: Final Round |
2/7
|
NBC
|
3:00-7:00pm
|
2.1
|
3,327
|
| NBA: Thunder-Warriors |
2/6
|
ESPN
|
9:13-11:41pm
|
2.0
|
3,230
|
| NBA: Warriors-Wizards |
2/3
|
ESPN
|
8:05-10:36pm
|
n/a
|
2,257
|
| Puppy Bowl (first airing) |
2/7
|
Animal Planet
|
3:00pm-5:02pm
|
n/a
|
2,198
|
PGA Tour: Waste Management
Phoenix Open: Third Round |
2/6
|
NBC
|
3:00-6:00pm
|
1.4
|
2,078
|
| NBA: Clippers-Heat |
2/7
|
ABC
|
2:03-4:35pm
|
1.3
|
1,979
|
College basketball:
North Carolina-Notre Dame |
2/6
|
ESPN
|
7:00-9:13pm
|
n/a
|
1,741
|
College basketball:
Florida-Kentucky |
2/6
|
CBS
|
4:06-6:11pm
|
1.1
|
1,658
|
College basketball:
North Carolina-Louisville |
2/1
|
ESPN
|
7:00-9:10pm
|
n/a
|
1,626
|
| "Sunday NFL Countdown" |
2/7
|
ESPN
|
11:00am-2:00pm
|
n/a
|
1,574
|
College basketball:
Kentucky-Tennessee |
2/2
|
ESPN
|
7:00-9:16pm
|
n/a
|
1,458
|
College basketball:
Michigan State-Michigan |
2/6
|
CBS
|
2:00-4:06pm
|
0.9
|
1,443
|
| "30 for 30": "The '85 Bears" |
2/4
|
ESPN
|
9:00-11:00pm
|
n/a
|
1,425
|
| NBA: Clippers-Grizzlies |
2/3
|
ESPN
|
10:36pm-1:14am
|
n/a
|
1,424
|
| NBA: Spurs-Mavericks |
2/5
|
ESPN
|
9:35pm-12:03am
|
n/a
|
1,382
|
| NHL: Flyers-Capitals |
2/7
|
NBC
|
12:00-2:45pm
|
0.8
|
1,178
|
Liga MX: Club America-
Santos Laguna |
2/6
|
Univision
|
5:55-8:00pm
|
0.7
|
1,173
|
| "X Games Aspen Anthology" |
2/6
|
ABC
|
1:00-5:00pm
|
0.7
|
995
|
Liga MX:
Chivas de Guadalajara-Toluca |
2/6
|
UniMas
|
9:54pm-12:05am
|
0.5
|
992
|
| "NBA Countdown" |
2/7
|
ABC
|
1:30-2:03pm
|
0.7
|
939
|
| "NFL Honors Preview" |
2/6
|
CBS
|
1:00-2:00pm
|
0.6
|
849
|
College basketball:
Arizona-Washington |
2/6
|
Fox
|
4:30-7:00pm
|
0.4
|
670
|
| EPL: Southampton-West Ham |
2/6
|
NBC
|
12:30-2:30pm
|
0.4
|
609
|
"Behind The Badge:
Crystal Palace" |
2/6
|
NBC
|
2:30-3:00pm
|
0.4
|
528
|
| Liga MX: Tijuana-Cruz Azul |
2/5
|
Azteca
|
10:13pm-12:32am
|
0.2
|
497
|
Bundesliga: Bayern Munich-
Bayer Leverkusen |
2/6
|
Fox
|
12:30-2:30pm
|
0.3
|
492
|
| "Fox College Hoops Tip-off" |
2/6
|
Fox
|
4:00-4:30pm
|
0.3
|
449
|
