The premiere for ESPN’s latest “30 for 30” documentary, “Deion’s Double Play,” drew 1.2 million viewers last Thursday night. In the comparable pre-Super Bowl Thursday window last year, the net drew 1.8 million viewers for “The Two Bills,” which focused on Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick. Two years ago, ESPN drew only 917,00 viewers for “This Was The XFL.”
NOT JUST NFL ON SUPER BOWL SUNDAY: NBC on Sunday drew 4.1 million viewers for Rickie Fowler’s two-shot win at the PGA Tour Waste Management Phoenix Open. That figure is flat compared to Super Bowl Sunday last year, when CBS aired the event and Gary Woodland won in a playoff with Chez Reavie. Meanwhile, Animal Planet at 3:00pm ET drew 1.9 million viewers for the premiere of the Puppy Bowl, marking the telecast’s lowest mark since ’12. The audience was down sharply from just over 3 million viewers last year.
NOTES: The NFL Honors ceremony on Saturday drew 3.4 million viewers for CBS, down 1% from NBC’s telecast last year, but up from 3.2 million viewers on Fox in ’17.
Fox on Saturday drew 652,000 viewers for the broadcast net’s first-ever soccer friendly involving the USNMT. The team defeated Costa Rica 2-0.
The chart below lists final audience figures from select recent sports telecasts.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
| Super Bowl LIII: Patriots-Rams |
2/3
|
CBS
|
6:32-10:05pm
|
41.1
|
98,190
|
| NBA: Lakers-Warriors |
2/2
|
ABC
|
8:30-11:02pm
|
2.5
|
4,085
|
PGA Tour: Waste Management
Phoenix Open: Final Round |
2/3
|
NBC
|
3:00-6:00pm
|
2.5
|
4,075
|
| "NFL Honors" |
2/2
|
CBS
|
9:00-11:01pm
|
2.1
|
3,422
|
PGA Tour: Waste Management
Phoenix Open: Third Round |
2/2
|
NBC
|
3:00-6:00pm
|
1.7
|
2,603
|
| NBA: Thunder-Celtics |
2/3
|
ABC
|
2:02-4:29pm
|
1.6
|
2,522
|
| NBA: 76ers-Warriors |
1/31
|
TNT
|
10:31pm-12:50am
|
1.5
|
2,299
|
| "NBA Countdown" |
2/2
|
ABC
|
8:00-8:30pm
|
1.4
|
2,190
|
| Puppy Bowl XV (premiere) |
2/3
|
Animal
Planet
|
3:00-5:03pm
|
n/a
|
1,854
|
College basketball:
Indiana-Michigan State |
2/2
|
ESPN
|
6:01-8:42pm
|
1.1
|
1,769
|
College basketball:
Kentucky-Florida |
2/2
|
ESPN
|
4:04-6:01pm
|
1.1
|
1,681
|
College basketball:
North Carolina-Louisville |
2/2
|
ESPN
|
2:03-4:04pm
|
1.0
|
1,614
|
| NBA: 76ers-Lakers |
1/29
|
TNT
|
10:39pm-1:01am
|
1.0
|
1,556
|
| NBA: Rockets-Nuggets |
2/1
|
ESPN
|
10:08pm-12:24am
|
1.0
|
1,540
|
| NBA: Bucks-Raptors |
1/31
|
TNT
|
8:00-10:31pm
|
1.0
|
1,471
|
College basketball:
Tennessee-Texas A&M |
2/2
|
ESPN
|
8:42-9:57pm
|
n/a
|
1,377
|
| NBA: Celtics-Knicks |
2/1
|
ESPN
|
7:43-10:08pm
|
0.9
|
1,350
|
| College basketball: Texas Tech-Kansas |
2/2
|
CBS
|
4:00-6:00pm
|
0.7
|
1,118
|
| NHL: Bruins-Capitals |
2/3
|
NBC
|
12:30-3:00pm
|
0.7
|
1,025
|
| NHL: (regional)* |
2/2
|
NBC
|
8:22-11:03pm
|
0.7
|
1,009
|
| Bowling: CP3 Celebrity Invitational (taped) |
2/3
|
Fox
|
2:00-4:00pm
|
0.6
|
880
|
| "NBA Countdown" |
2/3
|
ABC
|
1:30-2:02pm
|
0.6
|
833
|
| Liga MX: Cruz Azul-Leon |
2/2
|
Univision
|
7:57-10:01pm
|
0.4
|
783
|
| Pro Bowl Skills Showdown (taped) |
2/2
|
ABC
|
2:00-3:00pm
|
0.5
|
744
|
| "Winter X Games Anthology" |
2/2
|
ABC
|
3:00-5:00pm
|
0.5
|
742
|
| EPL: Bournemouth-Cardiff City |
2/2
|
NBC
|
12:30-2:30pm
|
0.5
|
699
|
| Soccer friendly: U.S.-Costa Rica |
2/2
|
Fox
|
3:30-6:00pm
|
0.5
|
652
|
NOTE: * = Lightning-Rangers and Blackhawks-Wild
