The Belk Bowl moved to ABC for the first time this season, and Virginia’s 28-0 win over South Carolina on Saturday drew 2.55 million viewers. Despite the move to broadcast TV, the Charlotte-based bowl had its lowest audience in at least a decade, perhaps longer. UVA-South Carolina also was down 14% from Wake Forest-Texas A&M in ’17, which aired on ESPN on a Friday afternoon (2.96 million viewers). Two years ago, in a late Thursday afternoon window on ESPN, Virginia Tech-Arkansas in the Belk Bowl drew 4.97 million viewers.
NOTE: FS1 drew 1.15 million viewers for the cable net’s final UFC PPV prelims on Saturday night, up 26% from the UFC 219 prelims on the comparable date in ’17.
The chart below lists final audience figures from select recent sports telecasts.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
NFL: Bears-Vikings (49%);
Eagles-Redskins (34%) |
12/30
|
Fox
|
4:25-7:44pm
|
11.7
|
21,209
|
Capital One Orange Bowl:
Alabama-Oklahoma (CFP semifinal) |
12/29
|
ESPN/
ESPN2
|
8:10-11:28pm
|
n/a
|
19,069
|
NFL: Browns-Ravens (52%);
Bengals-Steelers (22%) |
12/30
|
CBS
|
4:25-7:48pm
|
9.5
|
16,773
|
| NFL: (regional) |
12/30
|
Fox
|
1:03-4:13pm
|
9.8
|
16,598
|
Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic:
Clemson-Notre Dame (CFP semifinal) |
12/29
|
ESPN/
ESPN2
|
4:10-7:36pm
|
n/a
|
16,284
|
| "SNF": Colts-Titans |
12/30
|
NBC
|
8:23-11:17pm
|
9.3
|
16,051
|
| NBA: Lakers-Warriors (Christmas) |
12/25
|
ABC/
ESPN
|
8:11-10:36pm
|
5.3
|
10,211
|
| NFL: (regional) |
12/30
|
CBS
|
1:03-4:26pm
|
5.4
|
8,887
|
| "MNF": Broncos-Raiders |
12/24
|
ESPN
|
8:13-11:20pm
|
4.5
|
8,597
|
| Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl: Florida-Michigan |
12/29
|
ESPN
|
12:00-3:34pm
|
5.0
|
8,366
|
| NBA: 76ers-Celtics (Christmas) |
12/25
|
ABC
|
5:30-8:00pm
|
3.7
|
7,347
|
| "Football Night in America" |
12/30
|
NBC
|
7:30-8:14pm
|
3.6
|
6,264
|
| NBA: Thunder-Rockets (Christmas) |
12/25
|
ABC
|
3:00-5:30pm
|
3.1
|
5,955
|
Valero Alamo Bowl:
Washington State-Iowa State |
12/28
|
ESPN
|
9:00pm-12:40am
|
3.2
|
5,547
|
| "Fox NFL Sunday" |
12/30
|
Fox
|
12:00-1:03pm
|
3.3
|
5,162
|
Camping World Bowl:
Syracuse-West Virginia |
12/28
|
ESPN
|
5:15-8:56pm
|
2.8
|
4,828
|
| New Era Pinstripe Bowl: Wisconsin-Miami |
12/27
|
ESPN
|
5:16-8:12pm
|
2.3
|
3,790
|
Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl:
Vanderbilt-Baylor |
12/27
|
ESPN
|
9:00pm-12:54am
|
2.0
|
3,343
|
| NBA: Bucks-Knicks (Christmas) |
12/25
|
ESPN
|
12:14-2:32pm
|
1.7
|
3,170
|
| "The NFL Today" |
12/30
|
CBS
|
12:00-1:03pm
|
2.0
|
3,043
|
| Cheez-It Bowl: TCU-Cal |
12/26
|
ESPN
|
9:00pm-12:30am
|
1.6
|
2,700
|
| Belk Bowl: Virginia-South Carolina |
12/29
|
ABC
|
12:01-3:30pm
|
1.7
|
2,550
|
| "Fox NFL Kickoff" |
12/30
|
Fox
|
11:00am-12:00pm
|
0.9
|
1,424
|
| "World of X Games" |
12/29
|
ABC
|
3:30-4:30pm
|
0.7
|
1,045
|
| EPL: Arsenal-Liverpool |
12/29
|
NBC
|
12:30-2:45pm
|
0.6
|
935
|
