ESPN saw gains for the both the men’s and women’s finals at the Australian Open this year. In the wee hours of Sunday morning, the net’s live telecast (3:30am ET) averaged 571,000 viewers for Novak Djokovic’s five-set win over Dominic Thiem, which is up from 556,000 for Rafael Nadal’s win over Djokovic last year. Early on Saturday morning, ESPN averaged 673,000 viewers for Sofia Kenin’s win over Garbine Muguruza, up from 530,000 for Naomi Osaka’s win over Petra Kvitova in ’19.
NOTES: CBS averaged 2.87 million viewers for the final round of the PGA Tour Waste Management Phoenix Open on Sunday afternoon, which saw Webb Simpson defeat Tony Finau on the first playoff hole. That figure is down 30% from NBC’s telecast last year (4.08 million viewers), when Rickie Fowler won the event by two strokes....The “NFL Honors” show on Fox on Saturday night averaged 2.82 million viewers, down 18% from 3.43 million on CBS last year....Animal Planet averaged 1.85 million viewers for the premiere of “Puppy Bowl XVI” on Sunday at 3:00pm ET. That figure is flat compared to last year’s telecast.
The chart below lists viewership figures for select recent sports telecasts.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
| Super Bowl LIV: Chiefs-49ers |
2/2
|
Fox
|
6:41-10:11pm
|
41.6
|
99,905
|
| "Super Bowl Pregame" |
2/2
|
Fox
|
2:00-6:41pm
|
n/a
|
21,627
|
| "Fox Super Bowl Kickoff" |
2/2
|
Fox
|
1:00-2:00pm
|
n/a
|
4,500
|
| NBA: Trail Blazers-Lakers |
1/31
|
ESPN
|
9:59pm-1:24am
|
2.6
|
4,406
|
PGA Tour: Waste Management
Phoenix Open: final round |
2/2
|
CBS
|
3:19-6:30pm
|
1.8
|
2,867
|
| "NFL Honors" |
2/1
|
Fox
|
8:00-10:00pm
|
1.7
|
2,823
|
PGA Tour: Waste Management
Phoenix Open: third round |
2/1
|
CBS
|
3:11-6:00pm
|
1.5
|
2,192
|
| NBA: Pelicans-Rockets |
2/2
|
ABC
|
2:00-4:30pm
|
1.2
|
1,987
|
| College basketball: Kentucky-Auburn |
2/1
|
ESPN
|
6:07-8:24pm
|
1.2
|
1,945
|
| "Puppy Bowl" |
2/2
|
Animal
Planet
|
2:56-5:03pm
|
n/a
|
1,852
|
| College basketball: Duke-Syracuse |
2/1
|
ESPN
|
8:24-10:31pm
|
1.0
|
1,738
|
| NBA: 76ers-Celtics |
2/1
|
ABC
|
8:30-11:03pm
|
1.1
|
1,660
|
| NBA: Mavericks-Rockets |
1/31
|
ESPN
|
7:30-9:59pm
|
0.9
|
1,525
|
| "Postseason NFL Countdown" |
2/2
|
ESPN
|
10:00am-2:00pm
|
n/a
|
1,306
|
| College basketball: Michigan State-Wisconsin |
2/1
|
Fox
|
1:09-3:30pm
|
0.9
|
1,253
|
| NBA: Celtics-Heat |
1/28
|
TNT
|
8:05-10:35pm
|
0.8
|
1,246
|
| Figure Skating: U.S. Championships (taped) |
2/2
|
NBC
|
4:06-6:00pm
|
0.8
|
1,154
|
| NBA: Rockets-Trail Blazers |
1/29
|
ESPN
|
10:12pm-12:34am
|
0.8
|
1,152
|
| Liga MX: FC Juarez-Club America |
2/1
|
Univision
|
10:04pm-12:06am
|
0.6
|
1,106
|
| College basketball: Texas Tech-Kansas |
2/1
|
ESPN
|
4:03-6:07pm
|
0.8
|
1,096
|
| NHL: Penguins-Capitals |
2/2
|
NBC
|
12:30-3:00pm
|
0.7
|
1,094
|
| College basketball: North Carolina-N.C. State |
1/27
|
ESPN
|
7:00-9:02pm
|
0.7
|
1,005
|
| Liga MX: Tigres UANL-Pachuca |
2/1
|
Univision
|
7:55-10:04pm
|
0.5
|
932
|
| EPL: Wolverhampton-Manchester United |
2/1
|
NBC
|
12:30-2:30pm
|
0.6
|
913
|
| College basketball: Georgetown-St. John's |
2/2
|
CBS
|
1:00-3:15pm
|
0.6
|
909
|
| Figure Skating: European Championships (taped) |
2/1
|
NBC
|
3:00-5:00pm
|
0.6
|
838
|
| College basketball: UConn-Memphis |
2/1
|
CBS
|
1:00-3:15pm
|
0.6
|
811
|
| College basketball: Oklahoma State-Oklahoma |
2/1
|
ABC
|
3:00-5:30pm
|
0.5
|
618
|
| College basketball: Xavier-Seton Hall |
2/1
|
Fox
|
11:00am-1:09pm
|
0.4
|
592
|
