Michigan-Ohio State drew 13.2 million viewers on Saturday in the 12:00pm ET window to mark Fox’ best college football audience on record and the best CFB audience this season to date. The viewership was up from 10.5 million viewers last year, which was the first time Fox had the matchup. Two years ago, ABC drew 16.8 million viewers for the same game. UM-OSU will likely help keep Fox on pace for its best CFB season yet. Meanwhile, the Iron Bowl on Saturday in the 3:30pm window drew 9.1 million viewers for CBS, down sharply from 13.7 million for the Alabama-Auburn game last year, but up from 8.2 million two years ago. On Saturday night, ABC had Notre Dame-USC, which drew 7.7 million viewers. That is up from two years ago, when the net had the same game in the 3:30pm window (5.7 million viewers).
RETURN OF THE KING: ESPN averaged 3.4 million viewers for its Thanksgiving Eve NBA doubleheader, which featured LeBron James’ first game back in Cleveland since leaving for the Lakers. Thunder-Warriors was featured in the late window. Excluding Christmas, the two games marked the most-viewed ESPN NBA doubleheader since October ’14. Lakers-Cavaliers also was ESPN’s best regular-season game since December ’15.
The chart below lists final audience figures from select recent sports telecasts.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
| NFL: Redskins-Cowboys (Thanksgiving) |
11/22
|
Fox
|
4:36-7:57pm
|
12.5
|
30,524
|
| NFL: Bears-Lions (Thanksgiving) |
11/22
|
CBS
|
12:49-3:48pm
|
12.3
|
26,610
|
| NFL: Steelers-Broncos (87%) |
11/25
|
CBS
|
4:29-7:30pm
|
13.5
|
23,656
|
| NFL: Falcons-Saints (Thanksgiving) |
11/22
|
NBC
|
8:23-11:08pm
|
10.1
|
21,727
|
| "SNF": Packers-Vikings |
11/25
|
NBC
|
8:23-11:23pm
|
11.6
|
20,442
|
| "MNF": Chiefs-Rams |
11/19
|
ESPN
|
8:13pm-12:05am
|
9.7
|
16,892
|
| NFL: (singleheader) |
11/25
|
Fox
|
1:03-4:14pm
|
8.6
|
14,564
|
| NFL: (regional) |
11/25
|
CBS
|
1:03-4:15pm
|
8.1
|
13,797
|
| College football: Michigan-Ohio State |
11/24
|
Fox
|
12:00-4:15pm
|
7.5
|
13,200
|
| "The NFL Today" |
11/22
|
CBS
|
12:00-12:39pm
|
6.3
|
12,300
|
| "Football Night in America" |
11/25
|
NBC
|
7:30-8:15pm
|
5.3
|
9,246
|
| College football: Auburn-Alabama |
11/24
|
CBS
|
3:30-7:00pm
|
5.1
|
9,132
|
| College football: Notre Dame-USC |
11/24
|
ABC
|
8:07-11:38pm
|
4.4
|
7,736
|
| College football: Oklahoma-West Virginia |
11/23
|
ESPN
|
7:58-11:57pm
|
3.0
|
5,630
|
| "Fox NFL Sunday" |
11/25
|
Fox
|
12:00-1:02pm
|
2.9
|
4,610
|
| College football: Washington-Washington State |
11/23
|
Fox
|
8:45-11:55pm
|
2.3
|
4,091
|
| NBA: Lakers-Cavaliers |
11/21
|
ESPN
|
8:12-10:53pm
|
2.1
|
3,764
|
| "The NFL Today" |
11/25
|
CBS
|
12:00-1:03pm
|
2.3
|
3,590
|
| College football: Virginia-Virginia Tech |
11/23
|
ABC
|
3:45-7:30pm
|
n/a
|
3,553
|
| College football: South Carolina-Clemson |
11/24
|
ESPN
|
7:00-10:47pm
|
1.8
|
3,261
|
| College football: Rutgers-Michigan State |
11/24
|
Fox
|
4:15-7:45pm
|
1.8
|
3,038
|
| NBA: Thunder-Warriors |
11/21
|
ESPN
|
10:43pm-12:56am
|
1.7
|
2,938
|
| College football: Florida-Florida State |
11/24
|
ABC
|
12:00-3:45pm
|
1.5
|
2,380
|
| College basketball: Gonzaga-Duke |
11/21
|
ESPN
|
5:00-7:12pm
|
1.4
|
2,365
|
| "College GameDay" |
11/24
|
ESPN
|
9:00am-12:00pm
|
1.4
|
2,295
|
| College football: Maryland-Penn State |
11/24
|
ABC
|
3:45-6:45pm
|
1.3
|
2,176
|
| College basketball: Duke-Auburn |
11/20
|
ESPN
|
8:00-10:07pm
|
n/a
|
2,167
|
| College football: Arkansas-Missouri |
11/23
|
CBS
|
2:30-5:45pm
|
n/a
|
1,919
|
| "Herd for the Holidays" (Colin Cowherd special) |
11/25
|
Fox
|
4:40-5:40pm
|
1.2
|
1,872
|
| College football: UCF-USF |
11/23
|
ESPN
|
4:15-7:36pm
|
n/a
|
1,718
|
| College football: Oklahoma State-TCU |
11/24
|
Fox
|
8:05-11:36pm
|
1.0
|
1,615
|
| "Monday Night Countdown" |
11/19
|
ESPN
|
6:00-8:00pm
|
n/a
|
1,502
|
College basketball: Michigan State-Texas
(Las Vegas Invitational) |
11/23
|
Fox
|
6:30-8:45pm
|
n/a
|
1,410
|
| "Fox NFL Kickoff" |
11/25
|
Fox
|
11:00am-12:00pm
|
0.9
|
1,366
|
College basketball: North Carolina-UCLA
(Las Vegas Invitational) |
11/23
|
Fox
|
4:00-6:15pm
|
n/a
|
1,183
|
| Figure Skating: ISU Grand Prix (taped) |
11/25
|
NBC
|
4:00-6:00pm
|
0.7
|
1,105
|
| Liga MX: Club America-Veracruz |
11/24
|
Univision
|
9:55pm-12:00am
|
0.5
|
903
|
| Soccer friendly: Argentina-Mexico |
11/20
|
UniMas
|
6:30-9:00pm
|
0.5
|
879
|
| Liga MX: Tigres-Chivas |
11/24
|
Univision
|
7:55-9:55pm
|
0.4
|
845
|
| EPL: Chelsea-Tottenham |
11/24
|
NBC
|
12:30-2:30pm
|
0.5
|
824
|
| Lucas Oil Off Road Racing (taped) |
11/24
|
CBS
|
1:30-2:30pm
|
0.4
|
550
|
| Skiing/Snowboarding: Killington Cup (giant slalom) |
11/24
|
NBC
|
3:00-4:30pm
|
0.3
|
489
|
| Skiing/Snowboarding: Killington Cup (slalom) |
11/25
|
NBC
|
1:00-3:00pm
|
0.4
|
486
|
| "World of X Games" |
11/25
|
ABC
|
2:00-3:00pm
|
0.3
|
330
|
