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Ratings News and Notes

  • Coverage of college football’s opening weekend of the regular season on ESPN/ABC reached several key ratings milestones.

    On a night with many broadcast network preemptions due to local NFL preseason telecasts, ESPN ranked as the most-viewed network in primetime (8 p.m. – 11 p.m.) on Thursday, Aug. 31 among households, viewers and all key male and adult demos.

    The cable sports network delivered its most-watched opening weekend Thursday game on record with Ohio State Buckeyes at Indiana Hoosiers, which registered a total live audience of 5.43 million viewers factoring ESPN, ESPNU and streaming editions. The game was also simulcast on various other ESPN platforms such as ESPNU, ESPNEWS and ESPN3.

    Ohio State @ Indiana represented an increase of 172 percent over last year’s opening Thursday game (South Carolina at Vanderbilt). ESPN’s MegaCast TV audience (ESPN and ESPNU) peaked at 6.46 million viewers as the Indiana Hoosiers held a 14-13 lead heading into halftime (9:45-10 p.m.).

    ESPN’s college football TV viewership was more than 13 times larger than FS1’s college football TV audience (Tulsa at Oklahoma State: 382,000 viewers) on Thursday night.

    (Source: ESPN)

    Saturday night television was given a solid jolt with the return of college football on Sep. 2 as ABC dominated the evening with its “Saturday Night Football” presentation of the Florida State Seminoles versus the Alabama Crimson Tide.

    Including streaming viewership, Alabama’s victory over Florida State delivered a total live audience of 12.56 million viewers, now the most-watched kickoff weekend game ever across all networks — ESPN’s and competitors – surpassing the 11.139 million viewers of Notre Dame at Texas game on ABC from Sep. 4, 2016. It also represented a 56 percent increase from the “Saturday Night Football” season opener of one year ago, USC vs. Alabama (Sep. 3, 2016).

    In addition to setting new kickoff weekend records, the total live audience for Alabama’s victory is a top 5 regular season college football audience on ABC since 2006.

    Saturday night’s TV audience peaked at 14.12 million viewers (9:00–9:30 p.m.).

    (Source: ESPN)

    For the prime time of Sunday, Sep. 3 (the eve of Labor Day), ABC won all its key adult demos. Despite Fox televising the more notable college football game — UCLA scoring 35 consecutive unanswered points within the game’s final 17 minutes of regulation to defeat Texas A&M 45-44, West Virginia versus Virginia Tech on ABC earned a total live audience of 4.74 million viewers, besting Fox’s game viewership by 48 percent. (Source: ESPN)

  • The first week of the “U.S. Open” tennis tournament on ESPN and ESPN2 from Aug. 28-Sep. 3 averaged 781,000 viewers and 220,000 adults 18-49, up 8 percent (in viewers) and up 21 percent (among adults 18-49) from last year’s first week (Aug. 28-Sep. 4, 2016 on ESPN and ESPN2: 720,000 viewers/181,000 adults 18-49). However, it was also down 22 percent (in viewers) and down 16 percent (among adults 18-49) from the first week two years ago (Aug. 31-Sep. 6, 2015 on ESPN and ESPN2: 996,000 viewers/262,000 adults 18-49),

  • The Sep. 3 Boston-N.Y. Yankees game on ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” drew 1.96 million viewers. This marks as the most-watched MLB regular season telecast window in the month of September in four yesrs (since a regional window on the Fox network in 2013: 2.1 million viewers). (Source: Sports Media Watch).

espnlogo

ESPN Top 25 (and Select) Programs

ESPN ratings for August 28-September 3, 2017
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In total viewership for its entire week in Prime Time (8 p.m. to 11 p.m.), ESPN is up 49 percent (1,761,000 vs. 1,185,000) from one week earlier and up 18 percent (1,761,000 vs. 1,494,000) from the same week one year ago (August 29-September 4, 2016).

In total viewership for its entire week in Total Day (6 a.m. to 5:59 a.m.), ESPN is up 47 percent (805,000 vs. 549,000) from one week earlier and up 1 percent (805,000 vs. 800,000) from the same week one year ago (August 29-September 4, 2016).

ESPN’s daily programs viewership averages for the week:

  • “First Take” (ESPN, Aug. 28-Sep. 1 10 a.m.): 428,000 (254,000 adults 18-49)
  • “Outside the Lines: First Report” (ESPN, Aug. 31): 239,000 (136,000 adults 18-49)
  • “NFL Live” (ESPN, Aug. 31): 341,000 (174,000 adults 18-49)
  • “SportsCenter” (ESPN, Aug. 28-Sep. 1 7 a.m.): 294,000 (166,000 adults 18-49)
  • “SportsCenter” (ESPN, Aug. 28-Sep. 1 8 a.m.): 284,000 (166,000 adults 18-49)
  • “SportsCenter” (ESPN, Aug. 28-Sep. 1 9 a.m.): 305,000 (189,000 adults 18-49)
  • “SportsCenter” (ESPN, Aug. 28 & Sep. 1 6 p.m.): 529,000 (295,000 adults 18-49)
  • “SportsCenter” (ESPN, Aug. 28, 31 & Sep. 1 11 p.m.): 788,000 (439,000 adults 18-49)
  • “SportsCenter” (ESPN, Aug. 28-30 & Sep. 1 midnight): 509,000 (287,000 adults 18-49)
  • “SportsCenter at Night” (ESPN, Aug. 28-Sep. 1 1 a.m.): 477,000 (281,000 adults 18-49)

ESPN2

ESPN2 Top 25 (and Select) Programs

ESPN2 ratings for August 28-September 3, 2017
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In total viewership for its entire week in Prime Time (8 p.m. to 11 p.m.), ESPN2 is up 279 percent (848,000 vs. 224,000) from one week earlier and up 15 percent (848,000 vs. 740,000) from the same week one year ago (August 29-September 4, 2016).

In total viewership for its entire week in Total Day (6 a.m. to 5:59 a.m.), ESPN2 is up 113 percent (364,000 vs. 171,000) from one week earlier and down 10 percent (364,000 vs. 403,000) from the same week one year ago (August 29-September 4, 2016).

ESPN2’s daily show viewership averages for the week:

  • “Mike & Mike in the Morning” (ESPN2, Aug. 28-Sep. 1): 156,000 (91,000 adults 18-49)
  • “College Football Live” (ESPN2, Aug. 28-30 & Sep. 1): 231,000 (144,000 adults 18-49)
  • “MLB Network’s Intentional Talk” (ESPN2, Aug. 30 & Sep. 1): 143,000 (91,000 adults 18-49)
  • “The Paul Finebaum Show” (ESPN2, Aug. 28-30 $amp; Sep. 1): 212,000 (134,000 adults 18-49)
  • “Daily Fantasy Football” (ESPN2, Aug. 28-29, 31 & Sep. 1): 199,000 (151,000 adults 18-49)
  • “Jalen & Jacoby” (ESPN2, Aug. 29-Sep. 1 late night): 100,000 (55,000 adults 18-49)
  • “Best of Mike & Mike in the Morning” (ESPN2, Late Aug. 28-31 5 a.m.): 67,000 (34,000 adults 18-49)
  • “NFL Live” (ESPN2, Aug. 28-30 & Sep. 1): 310,000 (193,000 adults 18-49)
  • “Highly Questionable” (ESPN2, Aug. 28-29): 268,000 (186,000 adults 18-49)
  • “Around the Horn” (ESPN2, Aug. 28-29): 362,000 (208,000 adults 18-49)
  • “Pardon the Interruption” (ESPN2, Aug. 28-29): 528,000 (269,000 adults 18-49)
  • “SportsCenter” (ESPN2, Aug. 28-Sep. 1 10 a.m.): 170,000 (100,000 adults 18-49)
  • “SportsCenter” (ESPN2, Aug. 28-Sep. 1 11 a.m.): 200,000 (122,000 adults 18-49)
  • “SportsCenter” (ESPN2, Aug. 29-30 6 p.m.): 215,000 (113,000 adults 18-49)
  • “SportsCenter” (ESPN2, Aug. 29 & Sep. 1 11 p.m.): 241,000 (105,000 adults 18-49)

ESPNU

ESPNU Top 25 (and Select) Programs

ESPNU ratings for August 28-September 3, 2017
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In total viewership for its entire week in Prime Time (8 p.m. to 11 p.m.), ESPNU is up 107 percent (126,000 vs. 61,000) from one week earlier and down 13 percent (126,000 vs. 144,000) from the same week one year ago (August 29-September 4, 2016).

In total viewership for its entire week in Total Day (6 a.m. to 5:59 a.m.), ESPNU is up 85 percent (74,000 vs. 40,000) from one week earlier and down 9 percent (74,000 vs. 81,000) from the same week one year ago (August 29-September 4, 2016).

ESPNU’s daily show viewership averages for the week:

  • “The Dan Le Batard Show” (ESPNU, Aug. 28-29): 18,000 (10,000 adults 18-49)
  • “The Paul Finebaum Show” (ESPNU, Aug. 31): 13,000 (7,000 adults 18-49)

Source: Live+Same Day data, Nielsen Media Research

About Douglas Pucci

Douglas Pucci is a contributor to Programming Insider and blogger at Son of the Bronx.