Sports TV Ratings

PT Rnk		TD Rnk			Nov Distr. (000)	PT Vwr (000)	LW/LY	TD Vwr (000)	TD HH	TD Vwr LW/LY
1	=	1	=		97370	3426	-2%	1177	0.8	-6%
	=		=		84%	3426	+2%	1177	-4%	+1%
3	-1	2	=		97407	541	-27%	288	0.2	-21%
	=		+1		84%	541	+27%	287	-15%	+6%
2	+8	3	+1		72066	717	+2290%	224	0.2	+109%
	=		-1		62%	969	-34%	303	+80%	-26%
6	+2	4	+5		81751	149	+119%	81	0.1	+74%
	+2		+4		71%	177	+113%	96	+219%	+93%
6	=	5	=		78139	149	+7%	79	0.0	-9%
	+3		+4		67%	186	+122%	99	-8%	+94%
4	=	6	+1		59078	220	+29%	75	0.0	+7%
	=		-1		51%	363	+22%	123	+8%	+13%
5	-2	7	-4		88556	186	-64%	70	0.0	-64%
	+1		-1		76%	205	+74%	77	-67%	+14%
8	-3	8	-2		74882	91	-43%	69	0.0	-21%
	-3		-4		65%	118	-37%	89	-16%	-0%
9	-2	9	-1		74685	79	-41%	62	0.0	-6%
	-2		-2		64%	103	-20%	80	+10%	+4%
10	-1	10	=		70036	59	+59%	36	0.0	+25%
	=		=		60%	82	+18%	51		+21%

I decided to do a straight comparison of FS1 studio shows between the week before the Oklahoma-Baylor game and this week, tracking the cumulative effect after two hugely popular games. The general pattern does seem to be one of gaining viewers, though not always in a statistically significant fashion. There’s a lot of noise involved in the numbers of both Crowd Goes Wild and Fox Football Daily, for example; it’s hard to tell how much of CGW’s drop-off is due to the NASCAR season ending leading to an exodus of viewers from NASCAR Race Hub.

A couple of other things stand out to me. First, we have another sign that Fox shouldn’t be too disappointed with Fox College Saturday, as it’s beating all the weekday afternoon shows and all of FSL’s lead-in-independent averages. Second, in both of these weeks Fox NFL Kickoff didn’t have NASCAR RaceDay as a lead-in and still did over 100,000 viewers, blowing away any other non-NASCAR studio show and being a huge standout for FS1. Considering the numbers ESPN and NFL Network get for NFL Insiders, NFL Live, Around the League, and NFL Total Access compared to NFL Matchup, Fantasy Football Now, and NFL Gameday First, Fox Football Daily should be doing a lot better than it is. If I don’t see some marked improvement in its numbers by the end of 2013 I’ll be left with the conclusion that Fox should consider tinkering with its timeslot. Putting it at 5 ET, against ATH and PTI, or 4 ET, against NFL Live, are probably bad ideas. Is the midnight ET airing, where it does much better than the first-run airings earlier in the day (and where it did nearly as well as Fox NFL Kickoff Wednesday), a test run for moving it there permanently?

	Oct 28	Dec 2
Crowd Goes Wild (least-viewed 4 airings)	35	31
Fox College Saturday (compared to 11/30)	54	67
Fox Football Daily (average of all 5 airings)	32	35
Fox NFL Kickoff	101	106
Fox Soccer Daily (least-viewed 3 airings)	15	16
Fox Sports Live 11p (least-viewed 2 weekdays)	42	34
Fox Sports Live midnight (least-viewed 2 weekdays)	42	33
Fox Sports Live 1a (least-viewed 4 weekdays)	20	46
Fox Sports Live 2a (least-viewed 3 Mon-Sat)	15	25
NASCAR Race Hub (4 live airings)	161	103
UEFA Champions League Magazine	40	15
UFC Tonight	60	88
UFC Ultimate Insider	78	23

All numbers are in thousands of viewers and are from Son of the Bronx.

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PT Rnk		TD Rnk			Nov Distr. (000)	PT Vwr (000)	LW/LY	TD Vwr (000)	TD HH	TD Vwr LW/LY
1	=	1	=		97370	3513	+11%	1254	0.9	+5%
	=		=		84%	3513	+30%	1254	+3%	+15%
2	+1	2	=		97407	745	+6%	363	0.3	+8%
	+1		+1		84%	745	+38%	363	+6%	+34%
3	+4	3	+3		88556	513	+277%	192	0.1	+153%
	+2		+2		76%	564	+274%	211	+147%	+159%
10	-8	4	-1		72066	30	-97%	107	0.1	-63%
	-8		-2		62%	41	-97%	145	-53%	-63%
6	-1	5	=		78139	139	-22%	87	0.0	+6%
	+3		+4		67%	173	+96%	108	-5%	+123%
5	-1	6	-2		74882	160	-30%	87	0.1	-21%
	+1		=		65%	208	+27%	113	-14%	+34%
4	+2	7	+1		59078	171	+16%	70	0.0	+21%
	=		-3		51%	282	-22%	115	+40%	-9%
7	+1	8	-1		74685	134	+46%	65	0.0	+2%
	+1		-1		64%	175	+79%	85	+0%	+5%
8	+1	9	=		81751	68	-24%	47	0.0	-20%
	-1		-1		71%	81	-20%	55	-50%	-21%
9	+1	10	=		70036	37	-29%	29	0.0	-2%
	+1		=		60%	51	-8%	40	-96%	+32%

We’re waiting another week before chiming in with analysis of the effects of Oklahoma-Baylor and Oregon-Oregon State on FS1 studio show ratings, but there is one thing that FS1 should be very, very concerned about. The Civil War was not only the most-watched show in FS1 history, it also produced the most-watched edition of Fox Sports Live. But said edition of FSL only beat the one from launch night – a record the post-Oklahoma-Baylor edition failed to break – by about 50,000 viewers. On launch night, FSL’s retention was 26.7%. Its Oklahoma/Baylor retention? Only 16.2%. FSL’s post-Civil War retention rebounded to 24%, and earlier in the week on Monday FSL kept almost all of its college basketball lead-in, but the folks at FS1 should still keep a close eye on how FSL does going forward, and don’t be afraid to conclude that some of it may not be working.

(Obviously, don’t read too much into FS1 ranking ahead of NFL Network in a week in which NFLN didn’t have a Thursday Night game.)

All numbers are in thousands of viewers and are from Son of the Bronx.

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PT Rnk		TD Rnk			Nov Distr. (000)	PT Vwr (000)	LW/LY	TD Vwr (000)	TD HH	TD Vwr LW/LY
1	=	1	=		97370	3177	-8%	1195	0.8	-14%
	=		=		84%	3177	-1%	1195	-14%	-0%
3	=	2	=		97407	702	-20%	337	0.2	-15%
	-1		=		84%	702	+49%	337	-14%	+3%
2	=	3	=		72066	1101	+15%	287	0.2	+9%
	+5		=		62%	1488	+841%	388	+2%	+146%
4	+2	4	+1		74882	230	+50%	111	0.1	+32%
	+2		+2		65%	299	+70%	144	+45%	+40%
5	=	5	+1		78139	179	-7%	82	0.0	+21%
	-2		+3		67%	223	+3%	102	+33%	+26%
7	-3	6	-2		88556	136	-53%	76	0.0	-33%
	-2		-2		76%	150	0%	83	-27%	-19%
8	=	7	=		74685	92	+11%	64	0.0	+3%
	=		=		64%	120	-9%	84	-1%	-11%
6	+1	8	+1		59078	148	+68%	58	0.0	+6%
	-2		-3		51%	244	-9%	96	+10%	-28%
9	=	9	-1		81751	90	+18%	58	0.0	-4%
	=		=		71%	107	+30%	69	-0%	+48%
10	=	10	=		70036	52	+44%	30	0.0	+35%
	+1		+1		60%	72	+100%	41	+102%	+65%

I’ve introduced a new table below, tracking the retention for SportsCenter, Olbermann, and Fox Sports Live leading out of sports events. Ratings for these shows tend to be very lead-in dependent, and you generally expect the ratings to get bigger as the lead-in gets bigger. With retention, you expect the opposite: the smaller the lead-in, the bigger the retention as more people are watching specifically for that show. That’s why the Monday SportsCenter after Monday Night Football has poor retention compared to SportsCenters later in the week despite a massive audience. (This is also going to be the main place for me to list College Football Final and select other weekly ESPN2 shows. If a show actually has more viewers than its lead-in, I list the retention as “up” to signify that viewership went “up” and also that retention tells us little in this case.)

Other than MNF, SportsCenter can usually expect to retain around two-thirds of its lead-in audience. I have a small sample size, but what evidence I do have suggests Olbermann’s retention is much lower. Then there’s Fox Sports Live; with college basketball or weak college football as a lead-in it can achieve SportsCenter-esque retention, but it really doesn’t take much for FSL to retain just a fifth to a quarter of its lead-in; Wednesday’s FSL after the Ultimate Fighter has worse retention than the following day’s Olbermann, despite Olbermann having fewer raw viewers. Perhaps most distressingly, even a re-air of the Ultimate Fighter on Sunday night bleeds a ton of viewers when FSL comes on to just 9,000 viewers.

All numbers are in thousands of viewers and are from Son of the Bronx.

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PT Rnk		TD Rnk			Nov Distr. (000)	PT Vwr (000)	LW/LY	TD Vwr (000)	TD HH	TD Vwr LW/LY
1	=	1	=		97370	3470	-3%	1383	1.0	-4%
	=		=		84%	3470	+5%	1383	-3%	+6%
3	+1	2	=		97407	877	+57%	397	0.3	+16%
	=		=		84%	877	+99%	397	+15%	+20%
2	=	3	=		72066	959	+1%	264	0.2	-3%
	=		=		62%	1296	+12%	357	-4%	+5%
4	-1	4	=		88556	289	-54%	113	0.1	-29%
	=		=		76%	318	+29%	125	-39%	-11%
6	+1	5	+2		74882	153	+43%	83	0.0	+17%
	-1		=		65%	199	-18%	109	+24%	-7%
5	+1	6	-1		78139	193	+30%	68	0.0	-14%
	+3		+2		67%	240	+133%	85	-1%	+58%
8	+1	7	+2		74685	83	-13%	62	0.0	-3%
	-1		-1		64%	108	-7%	81	+9%	-23%
9	-1	8	=		81751	76	-28%	60	0.0	-15%
	=		+1		71%	91	+12%	72	-26%	+44%
7	-2	9	-3		59078	88	-48%	55	0.0	-25%
	-1		-2		51%	145	-25%	90	-25%	-18%
10	=	10	=		70036	36	+33%	22	0.0	+4%
	=		=		60%	50	+6%	31		-9%

Because I screwed up and forgot how I did week-to-week comparisons for FS1 studio shows last time, and because I have another big game coming up with its own attendant potential effects on FS1 ratings, I’m going to do at least two more Scorecards and do four weeks’ worth of comparisons on the second one. However, the overall averages for FS1 this week remain far enough ahead of any competitors that aren’t ESPN, ESPN2, or NFL Network to be very encouraging.

I’m so late that I’ve integrated the November viewership numbers into the chart above, complete with ESPN2 being in more households than ESPN. I can actually see how some small cable systems might offer ESPN2 to subscribers but not ESPN, but in any case ESPN dismisses this as an anomaly and the result of “a small number of misclassified homes”. I would expect ESPN2 to take a “small” but significant drop in future months if this were fixed, but so far as I can tell SportsBusiness Daily has not published December numbers at all. In any case, ESPN and ESPN2 have been running close enough to neck-in-neck that it doesn’t much matter, and I’m going to keep listing ESPN ahead of ESPN2 in the charts. (ESPNU also seems to have leapfrogged ESPNEWS, but I’m too lazy to reverse their positions on the charts they both appear on, at least this week. Besides, I don’t know if that’ll hold in future months.)

All numbers are in thousands of viewers and are from Son of the Bronx.

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Here’s the updated list of the most-viewed programs in Fox Sports 1 history through November 10 after Oklahoma-Baylor set the new record this week:

		Vwr (mil)	HH	18-49	Time
1	CFB: Oklahoma @ Baylor	2.11	1.3	0.7	11/7 7:30 PM
2	UFC Fight Night: Shogun v. Sonnen	1.782	1.0		8/17 8:00 PM
3	CFB: Oregon @ Washington	1.765	1.0		10/12 4:00 PM
4	CFB: Washington State @ Oregon	1.135	0.6	0.4	10/19 10:00 PM
5	NCWTS: Fred’s 250	1.021	0.7		10/19 4:01 PM
6	UFC Fight Night Prelims	0.881	0.5		8/17 6:00 PM
7	The Ultimate Fighter 18, Women’s Qtrs: Ladies First (Bazler v. Pena)	0.87	0.6	0.5	9/11 10:00 PM
8	CFB: Washington State @ USC	0.825	0.5		9/7 10:30 PM
9	UFC Fight Night: Condit v. Kampmann 2	0.824	0.5	0.4	8/28 8:00 PM
10	NCWTS: Winstar World Casino 350	0.815	0.5		11/1 8:31 PM

Sports Ratings Highlights for Week of October 14-20

Numbers compiled from a variety of sources, including TV by the Numbers, The Futon Critic, Sports Media Watch, and Son of the Bronx.

	Vwr (mil)	HH	18-49	Net
NFL: Regional coverage (main game: Broncos @ Chargers)	24.069	14.3	7.8	CBS
Sunday Night Football: Cowboys @ Saints	21.09	12.3	7.9	NBC
NFL: Regional coverage (or 4 PM ET)	20.2	12.2		FOX
Monday Night Football:	17.69	9.1	6.1	ESPN+ Locals
NFL: Regional coverage	12.7	8.0		CBS
CFB: LSU @ Alabama	11.903	6.9	4.1	CBS
Thursday Night Football:	7.709	4.6	2.4	NFLN+ Locals
CFB: Oregon @ Stanford	5.732	3.6	2.2	ESPN
CFB: Nebraska @ Michigan	4.8	3.1		ABC
CFB: Mississippi State @ Texas A&M	4.5	2.9		CBS
NASCAR	4.271	2.7	1.0	ESPN
CFB: Notre Dame @ Pittsburgh	3.034	2.0	0.6	ABC
World Series of Poker: Main Event Final Table Part II	1.234	0.9	0.4	ESPN

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PT Rnk		TD Rnk			Oct Distr. (000)	PT Vwr (000)	LW/LY	TD Vwr (000)	TD HH	TD Vwr LW/LY
1	=	1	=		98891	3559	+49%	1446	1.0	+23%
	=		=		85%	3559	+16%	1446	+22%	+13%
4	-1	2	=		98861	557	-8%	342	0.2	+4%
	-1		=		85%	557	-16%	342	+1%	+14%
2	=	3	=		72464	947	-0%	273	0.2	-3%
	=		=		63%	1292	+14%	372	+3%	+14%
3	+1	4	+2		90121	630	+167%	160	0.1	+89%
	+1		=		78%	691	+237%	175	+108%	+62%
6	=	5	-1		79145	148	-14%	79	0.0	-13%
	+1		+4		68%	185	+70%	99	-25%	+76%
5	=	6	+1		59950	170	-5%	73	0.0	-4%
	=		=		52%	280	+1%	121	-22%	+13%
7	=	7	+1		75603	107	+5%	71	0.0	-4%
	-1		-2		65%	140	+1%	93	-1%	+4%
8	=	8	-3		82964	105	+6%	71	0.0	-20%
	+1		=		72%	125	+78%	85	-16%	+55%
9	=	9	=		75829	95	+48%	64	0.0	+16%
	-1		-3		65%	124	+16%	84	+12%	-1%
10	=	10	=		71026	27	-10%	21	0.0	-32%
	=		=		61%	38	-7%	29	-96%	+32%

Fox Sports 1 had its best week since the relaunch this week, mostly on the back of Oklahoma-Baylor, NASCAR, and UFC. More encouraging than that is the raw number, which seems to put them closer to the class of ESPN, ESPN2, and NFL Network than the morass below them, even managing to beat ESPN2 outright in primetime. As I’ve said before, though, most of the effect on FS1’s studio shows, if any, shouldn’t turn up until next week, but you should be able to draw your own conclusions from Friday’s numbers. For now, let it be said that the record for most-watched edition of Fox Sports Live remains the one on launch night.

ESPN2	Fri 11:54p	549
ESPN2	Fri 12:52a*	373
ESPN2	Tue 12:42a*	298
ESPN2	Wed 12a	221
ESPN2	Thu 5a	137
ESPN2	Thu 11:47p	124
ESPN2	Thu 12:47a	121
ESPNEWS	Tue 11:21p	92
ESPNEWS	Fri 11p	81
ESPN2	Tue 5a	80
ESPNEWS	Wed 11p	76
ESPNEWS	Fri 5a	69
ESPN2	Wed 5a	59
ESPNEWS	Mon 11:32p	45
ESPNEWS	Mon 2a	43
ESPNEWS	Tue 1a	41
ESPNEWS	Sat 9a	40
ESPNEWS	Tue 2a	38
ESPNEWS	Sat 5a	31
ESPNEWS	Thu 2a	29
ESPNEWS	Fri 9a	27
ESPNEWS	Fri 2a	21
ESPNEWS	Wed 9a	19
ESPNEWS	Wed 1a	16
ESPNEWS	Thu 9a	15
ESPNEWS	Tue 9a	8
ESPNEWS	Wed 2a	5

One thing that has stuck out for would-be fans of ESPN2’s Olbermann, especially on Awful Announcing, is that the show has regularly been shuffled back and forth, airing at random times and shuffling between ESPN2 and ESPNEWS. ESPN has scheduled it like any other postgame highlights show, but it’s really not; Olbermann doesn’t even do the show live when its first airing is delayed, so whatever highlights there are must be over by midnight no matter what. It doesn’t help that the show is affected by live events running long on both ESPN and ESPN2, because SportsCenter gets bumped to ESPN2 when live events on ESPN run long.

What effect is all the shuffling having on Olbermann’s ratings? At right is every airing of Olbermann this week on both ESPN2 and ESPNEWS; asterisks indicate abbreviated airings. Not once this week did Olbermann air at its normal time on ESPN2, always getting at least slightly bumped; next week we’ll see a Thursday edition of Olbermann that started on time and collected 108,000 viewers, far from the most-watched airing of that week but beaten by only one airing on ESPNEWS this week or next (one, unsurprisingly, that also started on time). Unsurprisingly the first-run airings on ESPN2 are the most popular, and the most popular airings on ESPNEWS are likewise the first-run episodes – but Monday appears to have fallen curiously behind, ranking behind a 5 AM airing later in the week, and its only airing on ESPN2, at 5 AM, wasn’t the most-watched 5 AM airing of Olbermann on ESPN2 for the week. Did people think there wasn’t going to be an episode of Olbermann that day due to the World Series of Poker? Clearly starting late even on News didn’t have an effect on Tuesday’s episode…

To get a better sense of how delays may be affecting overall viewership, here are the total number of viewers for every episode of Olbermann this week, counting only full airings:

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Total	176	249	465	370	722
Average	44	50	93	74	144

One thing sticks out: Friday’s first-run airing of Olbermann had more viewers than any other day of the week had in total. In fact, the top three track with the most popular first-run airings on ESPN2, and the other two didn’t have full-length first-run airings before 5 AM ET. Those three first-run airings did better than that 108,000 figure Olbermann had when it started on time. That episode totaled 372,000 viewers across all airings (actually having two re-airs with more viewers than its first-run episode), only barely beating Thursday of this week, and an average of 62,000 per airing, dragged down by ESPNEWS re-airs that topped out at 13,000, beating only two total re-airs from this week.

Of all first-run, daily studio shows on ESPN2, Olbermann’s ratings on its own only really compare favorably to ESPNFC – and considering how opinionated Olbermann is one would expect it to do numbers more on par with what the opinion and debate shows earlier in the day are getting. From that it’s tempting to conclude that the frustration of trying to find Olbermann when it’s on is in fact turning people away from the show – especially people who can’t switch to ESPNEWS for some reason (the first-run numbers from this Tuesday’s episode on ESPNEWS aren’t that far off from that 108,000 figure). But look at that 549,000 figure at the top of the chart again. That’s not just inflated by its lead-in; that’s over half of the lead-in provided by the Louisville-Connecticut football game, which had 1.041 million viewers. If ESPN likes having some sort of general-sports postgame show to retain the viewership from whatever ESPN2 had on that night, it’s clear that Olbermann is at least succeeding on that front, no matter how poor a fit it might seem. Especially if it can keep beating Fox Sports Live.

All numbers are in thousands of viewers and are from Son of the Bronx.

Approx. 6-10 AM ET	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
ESPN: SportsCenter (6-9 avg.)	596	888	512	390	695
ESPN2: Mike and Mike	281	331	295	305	280
FS1: Fox Sports Live (6-9 avg.)	21	18	7	29	29
GOLF: Morning Drive (7-9 avg.)	56	33	19	n/a	n/a
NFLN: NFLAM	141	65	73	81	144
NBATV: NBA Gametime (6-9 avg.)	25	45	28	48	33*

*Inside the NBA

Approx. 9 AM-Noon ET	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
ESPN: SportsCenter (9-12 avg.)	514	654	364	364	435
ESPN2: First Take (10-12)	382	468	437	419	351
FS1: Fox Sports Live (9-12 avg.)	22	32	11	25‡	26
GOLF: Morning Drive (9-11 avg.)	36	27	25	27†	55†
NBCSN: The Dan Patrick Show	40	41	15	19	37
ESPNEWS: Mike and Mike (10-1)	30	46	40	22	34
ESPNU: The Herd (10-1)	74	63	28	52	48
NFLN: NFLAM (10-2)	124	64	78	76	82
MLBN: Hot Stove (9-11)	25	25	9	15	13
NBATV: NBA Gametime (9-12 avg.)	22	33	44	26	41*

*Inside the NBA
†10 AM hour only
‡9-11 average only

3 PM ET	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
ESPN: NFL Insiders	540	614†	445	434	466
ESPN2: SportsNation	211	134	221	n/a	n/a
FS1: Fox Soccer Daily (3:30-4)	32	128‡	138‡	n/a	n/a
ESPNEWS: SportsCenter	68	42	20	65	72
ESPNU: CFB Daily	33	30*	17	34	n/a
MLBN: Intentional Talk (3-3:30)	25	71	13	31	24
MLBN: Clubhouse Confidential (3:30-4)	41	44	38	43	35

*First-run rating for The Experts 1-2:30; 2:30-4 re-air had 35,000 viewers
†Aired from 3-3:30; Mike and Mike’s Best of the NFL 3:30-4 had 652,000 viewrrs
‡UEFA Champions League Soccer 2:30-5 PM

4 PM ET	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
ESPN: NFL Live	801	674	560	697	667
ESPN2: Highly Questionable (4-4:30)	265	221	300	n/a	n/a
ESPN2: Outside the Lines (4:30-5)	265	225	251	n/a	n/a
FS1: NASCAR Race Hub	124	102†	97†	106*	n/a
ESPNEWS: SportsCenter	49	57	28	83	79
MLBN: Hot Stove	40	30	26	48	14

*Aired 11-11:30 AM
†Aired at noon

5 PM ET	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
ESPN: Around the Horn (5-5:30)	1118	784	753	812	789
ESPN: PTI (5:30-6)	1301	1101	1007	1035	1050
ESPN2: College Football Live (5-5:30)	163	137	39†	192	84
ESPN2: ESPNFC (5:30-6)	113	74	20^	82	87
FS1: Crowd Goes Wild	57	37	n/a	42	113
NBCSN: Pro Football Talk (5:30-6:30)	54*	43	37	36	43
ESPNEWS: SportsCenter	137	111	61^	110	68
ESPNU: College Football Live (5:30-6)	31	41	28	n/a	48
NFLN: NFL Fantasy Live	123	84	n/a‡	142	170

*Aired 5-6:30
†Aired on ESPNU
‡Pre-empted by two-hour Around the League Live
^Aired on ESPNEWS; SportsCenter was abridged as a result

6 PM ET	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
ESPN: SportsCenter	1209†	920	783	870	761
ESPN2: Around the Horn (6-6:30)	153	111	199	92^	62¹
ESPN2: PTI (6:30-7)	247	267	288	97^	100¹
FS1: Fox Football Daily	55	15	n/a	72	n/a
ESPNEWS: SportsNation	n/a	55	33	174^	n/a
NFLN: Around the League Live	185	123	122	87*	171
MLBN: MLB Tonight	47	47~	52~	22~	28
NBATV: The Starters	88	57	73‡	18	61‡

*Aired 2-5; NFL Total Access 6-8 had 535,000 viewers
†Monday Kickoff from 6-6:30; SportsCenter on ESPNEWS 6:30-7 had 213,000 viewers
‡Aired at 5 ET; Gametime Thursday had 48,000 viewers, while Pregame 6:30 Friday had 91,000 viewers
^SportsNation aired on ESPN2 to make up for earlier pre-emption, bumping ATH and PTI to ESPNEWS
~Coverage of various awards
¹Aired on ESPNEWS

11 PM ET	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
ESPN: SportsCenter	n/a†	262‡	340‡	n/a	651	169^
FS1: Fox Sports Live	37	67	142	341	88	162
ESPNEWS: Olbermann	45*	92*	76	n/a	81	n/a
NFLN: NFL Total Access	78*	169	125	2512*	159	77

*Aired 11:30-12:30
†SportsCenter on ESPNEWS was folded into 10 PM episode, which had 45,000 viewers
‡Aired on ESPN2
^Aired on ESPNEWS

Midnight ET	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
ESPN: SportsCenter	5291	844*	1401	2702	773	216†
ESPN2: Olbermann	n/a	n/a	221	124	549	n/a
FS1: Fox Sports Live	55	56‡	91‡	157	75‡	64

*Short airing following WSOP
†Aired on ESPNEWS
‡Fox Football Daily

1 AM ET	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
ESPN: SportsCenter	84*	646	914	1347	626	1021
ESPN2: NBA Tonight (1:30-2)	n/a	204†	169	n/a	398	n/a
FS1: Fox Sports Live	30	45	81	39	60	56
NFLN: NFL Fantasy Live	74	136	49	542	97	n/a

*Aired on ESPNEWS; NFL Primetime had 2.174 million viewers
†Aired 1-1:30

2 AM ET	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
ESPN: SportsCenter	1395	475	599	1011	703	746
ESPN2: NASCAR Now (2-2:30)	n/a	100†	134*	126	n/a	294‡
FS1: Fox Sports Live	19	9	60	24	26	77
NFLN: NFL Total Access	36	123	89	343	108	91

*Aired at 1
†Aired at 3
‡College Football Final

Saturday Morning
ESPN: SportsCenter 8 ET	824
ESPN2: NFL Matchup 8:30 ET	190
FS1: Fox Sports Live 8-10 avg.	50
NBATV: NBA Gametime 8-12 avg.	49
ESPN: College Gameday 9 ET	1877
ESPN2: SportsCenter 9-12 avg.	358
GOLF: Morning Drive 9-11 avg.	96
ESPNU: Dari and Mel 9 ET	25
FS1: Fox College Saturday 10 ET	59
ESPNU: First Take CFB 10 ET	21
ESPNU: Whiparound 11 ET	75

morganwick.com

Sun	7 AM		8 AM		9 AM	10 AM	11 AM	Noon
	SportsCenter		SportsCenter		SportsCenter	Sunday NFL Countdown
	689K/.5		957K/.7		1.013M/.8	2.010M/1.4
	OTL	SR	Colin on FB				Fantasy FB Now
	219	227	196K/.1				523K/.3
	Fox Sports Live				Fox Sports Live	RaceDay	Fox NFL Kickoff
	44K/.0				54K/.0	197K/.2	138K/.1
	CFB Final		OTL	SR	Colin on FB	SportsCenter	SportsCenter	SportsCenter
	177K/.1		92	122	100K/.1	202K/.1		192K/.1
	NFL Gameday First				NFL Gameday Morning
	175K/.1				490K/.4
	MLB Tonight		MLB Tonight		MLB Tonight	MLB Tonight	MLB Tonight	MLB Tonight
	9K/.0		8K/.0		7K/.0	17K/.0	18K/.0	21K/.0
	NBA Gametime		NBA Gametime		NBA Gametime	NBA Gametime	NBA Gametime	NBA Gametime
	43K/.0		57K/.0		39K/.0	42K/.0	45K/.0	27K/.0

Morning Drive on GOLF: 8:30-9:30 38,000, 9:30-10:30 40,000

Afternoon Post/SNF Bridge
NBC: Hyundai Sunday Night Kickoff (8-8:20)	11,614
ESPN: SportsCenter (7-8:30)	971
NFLN: NFL Gameday Highlights (7:30-8:30)	282

morganwick.com

Sunday Night
ESPN: SportsCenter 11	633
ESPN: SportsCenter 12:30	800
ESPN2: NASCAR Now 10	319
ESPN2: ESPNFC 12:30	80
FS1: Fox Sports Live 11	58
FS1: Fox Sports Live 12:30	35
NFLN: NFL Gameday Overtime 11:30	266
NFLN: NFL Gameday Final 12	301

morganwick.com

Weekly Shows on ESPN and Networks Not On Chart
ESPN: Monday Night Countdown	Mon 6:30p	3308
ESPN: NASCAR Countdown (NSCS)	Sun 2p	1398
TNT: Inside the NBA	Thu 12:30a	1372
ESPN: E:60	Tue 7p	809
ESPN: BCS Countdown	Sun 8:30p	623
ESPN: Top NFL Matchup airing	Sun 6:30a	466

morganwick.com

Top 10 Non-ESPN Weekly Shows Not Otherwise On Chart
ESPN2: NASCAR Countdown (NNS)	Sat 3:30p	790
FS1: Fox College Thursday	Thu 7p	475
NFLN: A Football Life	Tue 9p	359
GOLF: Big Break XX: NFL	Tue 9p	249
NFLN: NFL Gamecenter	Sun 1p	237
NFLN: Playbook AFC	Fri 9p	221
ESPN2: NFL Primetime First-Run	Mon 2p	218
NFLN: A Football Life Backstory	Tue 10p	201
NFLN: Playbook NFC	Fri 10p	192
ESPN2: Football Sunday on ESPN Radio	Sun 5p	177
NFLN: NFL Gameday Scoreboard	Sun 4p	168
ESPN2: NFL Kickoff	Fri 6p	162

Near as I can tell, ESPNU first became Nielsen-rated just over a year ago, just before the start of November 2012. Here are the 500 (technically 505) most-watched programs over the course of that first year of Nielsen rating from October 29, 2012 through October 27, 2013. A more up-to-date list that will be maintained on a weekly basis will be found here. All numbers from Son of the Bronx.

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Sports Ratings Highlights for Week of October 28-November 3

Numbers compiled from a variety of sources, including TV by the Numbers, The Futon Critic, Sports Media Watch, and Son of the Bronx.

	Vwr (mil)	HH	18-49	Net
NFL: Regional coverage (main game: Steelers @ Patriots)	23.987		7.7	CBS
World Series, Game 6: Cardinals @ Red Sox	19.178		5.7	FOX
Sunday Night Football: Colts @ Texans	17.04		6.3	NBC
World Series, Game 5: Red Sox @ Cardinals	14.446		4.1	FOX
Monday Night Football	11.284	7.0	4.2	ESPN+ Locals
CFB: Miami @ Florida State	8.354	5.1	2.8	ABC
Thursday Night Football	6.915	4.2	2.5	NFLN+ Locals
NBA Opening Night: Bulls @ Heat	5.373		2.5	TNT
CFB: Michigan @ Michigan State	5.2	3.3		ABC
CFB: Georgia v. Florida	4.9	3.1		CBS
NASCAR	4.179	2.6	1.0	ESPN
NBA Opening Night: Clippers @ Lakers	3.571		1.8	TNT
CFB: Regional coverage	3.5	2.3		ABC
CFB: Navy @ Notre Dame	2.6	1.7		NBC
Breeder’s Cup Classic	2.118		0.4	NBC

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