ESPN drew 3.6 million viewers for Duke-Notre Dame on Saturday night, marking the most-viewed ACC Championship game in 20 years. This was the third year that the title game was on a Saturday night. Duke-Notre Dame was up 28% from 2.8 million viewers for North Carolina-Virginia last year. Meanwhile, ESPN on Sunday afternoon drew 2.7 million viewers for Kentucky-Arkansas, down from 2.9 million viewers for UK-Texas A&M in the SEC Championship last year. CBS on Sunday also drew 3.6 million viewers for the Big Ten title game featuring Michigan-Wisconsin, up from 3.2 million viewers for Michigan State-Purdue last year.
SPRING IN THEIR STEP: MLB Network on Saturday drew 977,000 viewers for the Dominican Republic's come-from-behind win over the U.S. in the first round of the World Baseball Classic, marking the net's best non-Postseason audience on record. The previous record was 883,000 viewers for the same matchup in the second round of the '13 tournament. The game also propelled MLB Net to its second-best primetime audience ever. The teams are again set to play in the second round this Saturday.
NOTES: ABC on Sunday afternoon drew 1.2 million viewers for the Verizon IndyCar Series season opener from St. Petersburg, down 14% from the same opener last year. However, the IndyCar opener from St. Pete in '15 drew only 891,000 viewers on ABC....Golf Channel drew 442,000 viewers for "Feherty" on Monday night from 9:00-10:00pm ET, marking the show's best premiere episode yet. The episode on Monday was the second part of a sit-down with Phil Mickelson. The show also marked Golf Channel's second-best audience on record for an original series or film.
The chart below lists final audience figures from select recent sports telecasts.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series:
Kobalt 400 (Las Vegas) |
3/12
|
Fox
|
3:30-6:30pm
|
3.6
|
5,973
|
| NCAA Tournament Selection Show |
3/12
|
CBS
|
5:30-7:00pm
|
3.0
|
4,883
|
| ACC Championship: Duke-Notre Dame |
3/11
|
ESPN
|
9:00-11:04pm
|
2.0
|
3,596
|
| Big Ten Championship: Michigan-Wisconsin |
3/12
|
CBS
|
3:00-5:30pm
|
2.3
|
3,578
|
| ACC Semifinal: Duke-North Carolina |
3/10
|
ESPN
|
7:00-9:31pm
|
1.8
|
2,973
|
| SEC Championship: Kentucky-Arkansas |
3/12
|
ESPN
|
12:56-3:10pm
|
1.6
|
2,672
|
| NBA: Warriors-Spurs |
3/11
|
ABC
|
8:29-10:54pm
|
1.5
|
2,450
|
| NBA: Cavaliers-Rockets |
3/12
|
ESPN
|
9:00-11:34pm
|
1.5
|
2,335
|
PGA Tour: Valspar Championship:
Final Round |
3/12
|
NBC
|
3:00-6:00pm
|
1.5
|
2,294
|
| Big Ten Semifinal: Wisconsin-Northwestern |
3/11
|
CBS
|
3:33-6:00pm
|
1.5
|
2,252
|
| Big Ten Semifinal: Michigan-Minnesota |
3/11
|
CBS
|
1:00-3:33pm
|
1.5
|
2,107
|
| Pac-12 Championship: Arizona-Oregon |
3/11
|
ESPN
|
11:04pm-1:22am
|
1.2
|
2,078
|
| NBA: Celtics-Warriors |
3/8
|
ESPN
|
10:28pm-12:58am
|
n/a
|
2,020
|
| "College GameDay" |
3/11
|
ESPN
|
8:07-9:00pm
|
n/a
|
1,902
|
| SEC Semifinal: Arkansas-Vanderbilt |
3/11
|
ESPN
|
3:40-5:38pm
|
1.2
|
1,853
|
| ACC Semifinal: Notre Dame-Florida State |
3/10
|
ESPN
|
9:53-11:56pm
|
n/a
|
1,789
|
| NBA: Bulls-Celtics |
3/12
|
ABC
|
3:29-5:41pm
|
1.1
|
1,694
|
| "Bracketology" |
3/12
|
ESPN
|
7:00-9:00pm
|
n/a
|
1,664
|
PGA Tour: Valspar Championship:
Third Round |
3/11
|
NBC
|
3:00-6:00pm
|
1.1
|
1,654
|
Atlantic 10 Championship:
VCU-Rhode Island |
3/12
|
CBS
|
12:30-2:30pm
|
1.1
|
1,613
|
Mountain West Championship:
Nevada-Colorado State |
3/11
|
CBS
|
6:00-8:00pm
|
0.9
|
1,313
|
Verizon IndyCar Series:
Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg |
3/12
|
ABC
|
12:00-3:00pm
|
0.8
|
1,199
|
| NHL: Wild-Blackhawks |
3/12
|
NBC
|
12:00-3:00pm
|
0.7
|
1,129
|
Big East Tournament Final:
Villanova-Creighton |
3/11
|
Fox
|
5:27-7:30pm
|
0.7
|
1,085
|
| "World of X Games: X Games Norway" |
3/11
|
ABC
|
2:00-4:00pm
|
0.4
|
631
|
USSA Alpine World Cup:
Giant Slalom (taped) |
3/11
|
NBC
|
1:30-3:00pm
|
0.4
|
582
|
| "SEC Storied: Before They Were Cowboys" |
3/11
|
ABC
|
4:00-5:00pm
|
0.4
|
573
|
