Sports TV Ratings

	Vwr (000)	HH	Vwr/ ESPN	HH/ ESPN
ESPN	827	0.6	827	0.6
NFLN	256	0.2	353	0.3
ESPN2	229	0.2	229	0.2
GOLF	150	0.1	179	0.1
MLBN	91	0.1	127	0.1
FS1	81	0.0	89	0.1
NBCSN	80	0.0	100	0.1
NBATV	45	0.0	73	0.0
ESPNU	41	0.0	54	0.0
FS2	13	0.0	34	0.0

If you’re Fox Sports 1, what good things can you take away from your first week? Well, the late-morning reairs of the previous night’s Fox Sports Live are beating all their non-ESPN competition, and Fox Football Daily isn’t that far off from beating MLB Tonight and beat the Crossover fairly handily the few times they went head-to-head, but other than that your studio shows are coming in last in all time periods, which shouldn’t be happening to the sports network with better reach than any network not named ESPN or ESPN2. The fact is that FS1 bungled the launch; they had to lock down distribution with the satellite companies and Time Warner Cable, and even after that was settled, they spent all their time plugging shows during the NFL preseason game the night before the network’s launch, but the closest they came, from the part of it I watched, to telling people how to actually watch all this exciting programming was a brief mention by Curt Menefee of the network’s position on DirecTV. Fox did run ads and a ticker telling people how to find Fox Sports 1… on Speed, you know, the channel that was turning into FS1 to begin with. Result: the only people who knew where Fox Sports 1 was were Speed fans (who have been absolutely irate over the loss of Speed) and UFC fans looking for the fight on the first night. How do I know this is the problem and not the simple fact of being a new network with limited programming?

Of the top 20 programs of the first nine days of Fox Sports 1, 19 are either UFC-related, would fit right in on Speed, or had one of the other two as their lead-in. The exception is an episode of “Fantastic Finishes” on the first day that had an episode of “Fox Sports 1-on-1” as its lead-in that was itself boosted by a Truck Series race and that wouldn’t even be the most-watched program in Fuel history. NASCAR Race Hub, a Speed holdover, is FS1’s most-watched studio show, even when it’s moved to early afternoon by soccer, even managing to beat its much-hyped lead-out Crowd Goes Wild on day 1. The most-watched non-Speed non-UFC program on its own merits, a Monday showing of the college football preview show, is beaten by a double-digit number of Fuel programs. The top non-NASCAR live studio shows are, in order, Fox Sports Live after that first-night fight, said fight’s pregame show, an episode of Crowd Goes Wild that had a Nationwide practice as its lead-in and more than doubled any prior episode after CGW had lost viewers every single day all week despite having UEFA Champions League games as a lead-in Tuesday and Wednesday, the second hour of FSL on night 1, and finally, the premiere of Fox Football Daily at 128,000 viewers, same as a high school football game later in the week. Even that first-night UFC card, which was of PPV quality, should have reached into the general area of the Fox cards and certainly should have been the most-watched cable card of the short Fox era.

We’ll see how this hypothesis plays out as the college football season progresses, and we’ll see if Fox realizes it as the football season and baseball pennant chase progress as well. In any case, it’s probably not a good sign that both FS1 and FS2 did worse in total viewers than their more narrowly-focused predecessors did the previous week.

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.)	525	463	392	398	418
ESPN2: Mike and Mike	213	170	183	181	176
FS1: Fox Sports Live (6-9 avg.)	28	16	38	9	20
GOLF: Morning Drive (7-9 avg.)	47	58	55	65*	99*
NFLN: NFLAM	110	103	75	104	114
MLBN: Quick Pitch (6-9 avg.)	35	21	38	32	39

*Includes additional half-hour to 9:30

Approx. 9 AM-Noon ET	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
ESPN: SportsCenter (9-12 avg.)	415	340	366	356	428
ESPN2: First Take (10-12)	416	300	354	323	265
FS1: Fox Sports Live (9-12 avg.)	46	30	26†	28	n/a
GOLF: Morning Drive (9-11 avg.)	40	31	33	n/a	n/a
NBCSN: The Dan Patrick Show	30	20	25	24	40
ESPNU: The Herd (10-1)	74	44	51	35	39
MLBN: Quick Pitch (9-1 avg.)	28	30*	32*	44	33

*9-11 average only; Thursday’s average 9-12 only
†Does not include 10 AM hour (NCWTS practice)

3 PM ET	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
ESPN: NFL Insiders	236*	390	407	437	n/a
ESPN2: SportsNation	n/a*	192	150	n/a	n/a
MLBN: The Rundown (2-4)	43	83	54	n/a	79

*NFL Insiders aired on ESPN2

4 PM ET	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
ESPN2: NFL Live	391	275	347	n/a	n/a
FS1: Fox Soccer Daily (4-4:30)	39	83*	57*	29	n/a
FS1: NASCAR Race Hub (4:30-5)	98	116*	166*	151	n/a
MLBN: MLB Now	41	96	n/a	134†	59

*UEFA Champions League coverage 2:30-5; Race Hub aired 12 PM Tuesday, 1:30 Wednesday
†Began following Diamondbacks/Reds

5 PM ET	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
ESPN2: College Football Live (5-5:30)	264	240	36*	n/a	152
ESPN2: ESPNFC (5:30-6)	143	141	n/a	55	65
FS1: Crowd Goes Wild	74	44	36	29	179†
MLBN: Intentional Talk	111	104	n/a	96	76
ESPNU: College Football Live (5:30-6)	153	99	32	78	75

*Aired on ESPNU
†Had Nationwide qualifying as lead-in

6 PM ET	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
ESPN: SportsCenter	613	679†	610	894†	713
FS1: Fox Football Daily	128	111	69	72	76
NBCSN: The Crossover	n/a	23	n/a	12	17
NFLN: NFL Total Access (7 ET)	210	236	181	287	311
MLBN: MLB Tonight	147	122	138*	100	108‡

*6:30-8
†Less than half an hour due to LLWS games going long; Thursday had an additional 126k on ESPN2
‡Two hours leading up to live game at 8 ET

11 PM ET	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
ESPN: SportsCenter	1940	624	974	1608	552	792
FS1: Fox Sports Live	82	61	66	57	n/a	60
NFLN: NFL Total Access	152	329	376	202	181*	n/a

*Re-air of 7 ET episode at 10 ET

Midnight ET	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
ESPN: SportsCenter	1144	596	792	995	517	1058
ESPN2: Baseball Tonight	196*	135	118	103*	120	113*
FS1: Fox Sports Live	33	50	47	72	n/a	53
MLBN: Quick Pitch	n/a	n/a	129†	n/a	138	151

*Aired at 1 AM; Monday followed baseball game, Thursday followed NFL Live (130k)
†11 PM airing had 216K

1 AM ET	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
ESPN: SportsCenter	826	414	485	637	597	915
FS1: Fox Sports Live	25	62	5*	38	24	43
MLBN: Quick Pitch	54	89	52	48	100	86

*Least-watched FS1 program of entire week (and it was live!)

2 AM ET	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
ESPN: SportsCenter	625	289	385	544	567	770
FS1: Fox Sports Live	30	87	21	12	23	34
MLBN: Quick Pitch	51	46	55	37	74	61

morganwick.com

Sunday Night
ESPN: SportsCenter 11	1044
ESPN: SportsCenter 12:30	512
ESPN2: ESPNFC 12	84
FS1: Fox Sports Live 11	55
FS1: Fox Sports Live 12	55
FS1: Fox Sports Live 1	41
NFLN: NFL Total Access 11	237

	Vwr (000)	HH	Vwr/ ESPN	HH/ ESPN
ESPN	803	0.6	803	0.6
NFLN	309	0.2	429	0.3
ESPN2	279	0.2	279	0.2
GOLF	154	0.1	183	0.1
MLBN	104	0.1	144	0.1
SPEED*	90	0.1	103	0.1
NBCSN	62	0.0	79	0.0
ESPNU	34	0.0	45	0.0
NBATV	26	0.0	43	0.0
FUEL*	15	0.0	41	0.0

Hey, so, next week I’m going to try a new feature called the Studio Show Scorecard, comparing the ratings for all the various daily studio shows on the various national sports networks. Should I do this in a separate post on Friday, or put it up with the other stuff the following week? If I do it in a separate post, which post should have the total day averages? (Speaking of which, the averages for Speed and Fuel you see here are for Monday-Friday only and do not include the post-relaunch period.) Should I have separate tables for each day (thus ending up with more total tables and a huge temptation to grab more ratings than I realistically have time for) or each timeslot (which can be awkward with the varying time slots shows have)? Feel free to leave your suggestions in an e-mail or the comments (assuming, you know, anyone cares about this stuff).

Hey, here’s something interesting: the viewership for the last hours of Speed and the first hours of Fox Sports 1! Shows in bold were, for the time being, the most-watched program in the young network’s history; the most watched program at the end of the weekend is in the main highlights table. It’s FS1’s first appearance in my weekly ratings tables! They grow up so fast…

Fox Sports 1: America’s New Sports Network	2:30 AM	46
History of the SCCA Trans Am Series	3:00 AM	45
NASCAR Sprint Cup Qualifying	4:00 AM	52
Fox College Football Kickoff	6:00 AM	62
Fantastic Finishes	7:00 AM	35
Fantastic Finishes	7:30 AM	23
NASCAR Live	8:00 AM	80
NASCAR Sprint Cup Practice	8:30 AM	164
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Qualifying	9:30 AM	257
NASCAR Sprint Cup Final Practice	11:00 AM	397
NCWTS Setup	12:00 PM	392
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series	12:30 PM	783
Fox Sports 1 on 1	2:35 PM	349
UFC Fight Night Prelims	6:00 PM	881

Sports Ratings Highlights for Week of August 12-18: Yankees-Red Sox Edition

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 Preseason: Colts @ Giants	6.47	4.1	2.1	FOX
NFL Preseason: Buccaneers @ Patriots	4.66	3.0	1.5	FOX
NASCAR	4.585	3.0	1.2	ESPN
Sunday Night Baseball: Yankees @ Red Sox	3.098	2.1	1.0	ESPN
NFL Preseason: Chargers @ Bears	2.969	2.0	1.1	ESPN
MLB: Regional coverage (main game: Yankees @ Red Sox)	2.4	1.7		FOX
UFC Fight Night	1.782	1.0		FS1
NASCAR Nationwide Series	1.287	0.9		ESPN
Hard Knocks	0.655		0.4	HBO

Read more

	Vwr (000)	HH	Vwr/ ESPN	HH/ ESPN
ESPN	638	0.5	638	0.5
NFLN	353	0.2	490	0.3
ESPN2	238	0.2	238	0.2
GOLF	102	0.1	122	0.1
MLBN	101	0.1	141	0.1
SPEED	99	0.1	114	0.1
ESPNU	39	0.0	51	0.0
NBCSN	38	0.0	48	0.0
NBATV	24	0.0	39	0.0
FUEL	18	0.0	48	0.0

At right is the return of the total day averages for what is now ten national sports networks, including the numbers for the last full week of Speed and Fuel. Evidence #3125 of how unstoppable the NFL is: NFLN managed to beat ESPN2 during the PRESEASON.

Sports Ratings Highlights for Week of August 5-11: PGA Championship Edition

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
PGA Championship: Final Round	5.5	3.9		CBS
NASCAR	4.171	2.7	1.2	ESPN
PGA Championship: Third Round	3.7	2.6		CBS
NFL Preseason: Bengals @ Falcons	3.116	2.1	1.2	ESPN
NFL Preseason: Giants @ Steelers	1.834	1.1	0.6	NFLN
NFL Preseason: Patriots @ Eagles	1.815	1.2	0.8	NFLN
PGA Championship: Final Round	1.616	1.2	0.4	TNT
NFL Preseason: Bills @ Colts	1.405	0.9	0.5	NFLN
NFL Preseason: Cowboys @ Raiders	1.336	0.8	0.6	NFLN
NFL Preseason: Whiparound Coverage	0.749	0.5	0.4	NFLN
Hard Knocks	0.64		0.4	HBO

Read more

Sports Ratings Highlights for Week of July 29-August 4: Hall of Fame Game Edition

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
Hall of Fame Game: Cowboys v. Dolphins	10.11	6.2	3.8	NBC
NASCAR	5.063	3.2	1.3	ESPN
WGC-Bridgestone Invitational: Final Round	4.6	3.2		CBS
NASCAR Nationwide Series	1.509	1.0	0.3	ESPN
X Games Los Angeles Day 4	1.208	0.8	0.5	ESPN
Pro Football Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony	1.175	0.8		ESPN2 +NFLN
UFC 163 Prelims	1.002		0.5	FX
International Champions Cup Semifinal: Real Madrid v. Everton	0.99	0.5		FOX
Women’s British Open: Final Round	0.436	0.3		ESPN2

Read more

Sports Ratings Highlights for Week of July 22-28: Brickyard 400 Edition

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
NASCAR: Brickyard 400	5.46	3.6	1.3	ESPN
UFC on Fox 8	2.4	1.5		FOX
CONCACAF Gold Cup Final: United States v. Panama	2.4	1.4		FOX
CONCACAF Gold Cup Final: United States v. Panama	2.3			Univ.
NASCAR Nationwide Series	1.913	1.4		ESPN
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: The CarCash Mudsummer Classic	1.409	0.9	0.4	SPEED
NASCAR: Brickyard 400 Qualifying	1.156	0.8		ESPN
WNBA All-Star Game	0.791	0.6		ABC
World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific Main Event Final Table Part II	0.629	0.4	0.2	ESPN
Nine for IX: No Limits	0.4	0.3	0.2	ESPN
World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific Main Event Final Table Part I	0.378	0.3	0.1	ESPN
National Baseball Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony	0.101	0.1		MLBN

Read more

Since all my time this week was taken up by the college football TV schedule post, no total day averages this week.

Sports Ratings Highlights for Week of July 15-21: The Open Championship Edition

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
MLB All-Star Game	10.96	6.9	3.2	FOX
Home Run Derby	6.651	4.1	2.6	ESPN
The Open Championship: Final Round	4.372	3.1	1.2	ESPN
The Open Championship: Third Round	3.776	2.7		ESPN
MLB: Regional coverage (main game: Yankees @ Red Sox)		2.0		FOX
Sunday Night Baseball: Yankees @ Red Sox	2.566	1.7	0.7	ESPN
ESPY Awards	2.269	1.5	1.0	ESPN
All-Star Celebrity Softball Game	2.179	1.4	1.0	ESPN
Tour de France: Last Stage	0.56	0.4		NBCSN

Read more

	Vwr (000)	HH	Vwr/ ESPN	HH/ ESPN
ESPN	380	0.3	380	0.3
ESPN2	169	0.1	169	0.1
GOLF	104	0.1	123	0.1
MLBN	101	0.1	140	0.1
NBCSN	100	0.1	127	0.1
SPEED	81	0.1	93	0.1
NFLN	61	0.1	84	0.1
NBATV	56	0.0	91	0.1
ESPNU	24	0.0	32	0.0

Sports Ratings Highlights for Week of July 8-14: Pre-MLB All-Star Edition

So it turns out that Word wasn’t actually right-aligning the total day average table the way I was trying to tell it to, so I’m experimenting with using Word just to try to get the table to look the way I want and then paste it into WordPress’ own editor. Also added two new columns showing how much viewership each network would have if they had the same percentage of ESPN’s distribution, based on May 2013 numbers from Sports Business Daily.

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
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series	4.907	3.2	1.3	TNT
Baseball Night in America (main game: Cardinals @ Cubs)	3	1.9		FOX
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series	0.57	0.4		SPEED
Nine for IX	0.311	0.2	0.2	ESPN
FIFA U-20 World Cup Final	0.299	0.2		ESPN
All-Star Futures Game	0.194	0.1		ESPN2

Read more

Sports Ratings Highlights for Week of July 1-7: Wimbledon Championship Edition

I’m probably going to have to find something to fill this space every week to avoid the two tables at the top colliding horribly, aren’t I? Um… the numbers for the Wimbledon men’s final conflate numbers that referred to the whole window with numbers that referred only to the match portion and so should be taken with a grain of salt?

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
NASCAR: Coke Zero 400	5.662	3.5	1.4	TNT
Wimbledon Gentlemen’s Final: Murray v. Djokovic	2.456	1.7	0.7	ESPN
NASCAR Nationwide Series	1.927	1.3	0.5	ESPN
Wimbledon Ladies’ Final: Bartoli v. Lisicki	1.9	1.3		ESPN
Wimbledon Ladies’ Final: Bartoli v. Lisicki (full window)	1.302	1.3		ESPN
Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest	1.146	0.7	0.6	ESPN2
Nine for IX: Venus Vs.	0.46	0.4	0.2	ESPN

Read more

It’s possible that within 24 hours I’ll have all the information I’m going to get from this week, so all that’ll be left is to wait three weeks so I can get the times for selected events, so no sports ratings highlights this week; Sports Media Watch should have you mostly covered, with additional information on the FIFA Confederations Cup final, and Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final was in the Top 50 of the First Half table last week. But! I will take this opportunity to whip out a new feature: total-day averages for the sports networks covered by Son of the Bronx, seen in the table at right! Hopefully Word won’t goof this up too horribly…

Read more

Sports Ratings Highlights for Week of June 17-23: NBA Finals Conclusion Edition

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	Time	Net
NBA Finals: Spurs @ Heat, Game 7		26.32		15.3	10.6	6/20 9:00 PM	ABC
NBA Finals: Spurs @ Heat, Game 6		20.64			8.5	6/18 9:00 PM	ABC
Stanley Cup Final: Blackhawks @ Bruins, Game 4		6.64			2.4	6/19 8:00 PM	NBC
Stanley Cup Final: Bruins @ Blackhawks, Game 5		5.6		3.2		6/22 8:00 PM	NBC
NASCA		4.66			1.3	6/23 3:00 PM	TNT
Stanley Cup Final: Blackhawks @ Bruins, Game 3		4.001		2.3	1.6	6/17 8:00 PM	NBCSN

Read more