Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week’s edition, the Texas/Alabama showdown on ESPN and ESPN2 delivers highest regular season viewership since 2015; Coco Gauff’s US Open Victory Marks Most-Viewed Women’s Major Tennis Final Ever; and more.
Monday Night Football Averages 21.8 Million Viewers across ESPN Platforms during More Than Two Hours of Overlapping Games
During Monday Night Football’s Week 2 action (September 18), which featured two games with staggered start times, ESPN Platforms averaged 21.8 million viewers (ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, ESPN+, ESPN Deportes) when the Saints at Panthers (7:15 p.m. ET kickoff) and Browns at Steelers (8:15 p.m. kickoff) overlapped for more than two hours (8:15 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.). The 21,757,000 viewers, which includes fans watching on NFL+, is an increase of 6% from the similar MNF staggered starts in Week 2 of the 2022 season (20.6 million viewers across the same networks).
Across ESPN platforms, fans watched 21% more Monday Night Football in Week 2 this season compared to 2022’s Week 2 (4.7 billion minutes to 3.9 billion of minutes).
Individually, Browns-Steelers (15.4 million viewers on ABC, ESPN+, NFL+) was up 20% from Vikings-Eagles on the same networks last season. Combined with Saints-Panthers, the average audience of the two games was up 11% across ESPN Platforms (11.4 million to 10.3 million).
ESPN, which was the second most-watched network in television behind ABC, combined with ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes to average 7 million viewers for Saints-Panthers.
F1 Singapore Grand Prix Gets Largest Live U.S. Television Audience on Record
Sunday’s Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix, broadcast live on ESPN, along with the F1 Kids telecast on ESPNU, attracted a combined average audience of 1.2 million viewers, the largest audience ever in the U.S. for the race.
Largest live U.S. audience on record for Singapore Grand Prix.
Seventh race this year to set a viewership record (Saudi Arabia, Monaco, Canada, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Singapore).
Race audience peaked at 1.347 million viewers between 9:45-9:59 a.m. ET.
The main race telecast on ESPN averaged 1.18 million viewers – the F1 Kids telecast on ESPNU averaged 23K viewers (note that F1 Kids was a late addition to the weekend coverage).
Last year’s race averaged 1.03 million viewers on ESPN2.
Saturday’s qualifying averaged 524K viewers.
The 2023 season has had three of the four largest live audiences in history on U.S. television:
Miami 1.96 million
Monaco 1.79 million
Canada 1.76 million
All but three of 15 races this year have averaged more than 1 million viewers:
Australia (aired in overnight hours) – 556K
Azerbaijan – 959K
Dutch – 968K
Through 15 races, the 2023 F1 season is averaging 1.2 million viewers per race across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC
The average is down one percent from the overall season average for 2022 (1.21 million), which was the highest ever for F1 in the United States
Comparing to the average for the first 15 races of 2022, the average is down 4 percent from 1.257 (an average which included the record-setting inaugural Miami Grand Prix and its 2.6 million viewers).
How much have F1 audiences grown? In 2018, the first year the Championship returned to ESPN platforms, F1 races averaged 554K.
ESPN/ABC Airs Four of the Top Five Most-Watched Games of Week 3; College GameDay Crushes in Colorado
For the third consecutive week, ESPN platforms presented the most-viewed college football game of the week, as Colorado State/Colorado delivered 9.3 million viewers on ESPN in the late prime window. The Rocky Mountain matchup is ESPN’s fifth most-watched game on record (since 1990) and ESPN’s most-streamed regular season college football game on record.
The Rams/Buffs battle becomes ESPN’s most-watched late prime game all time and is ESPN and ABC’s fourth best regular season game (excluding conference championships) in six years. The audience peaked with 11.1 million viewers from 11-11:15 p.m. ET.
The top five markets for Colorado State/Colorado:
Rank
Market
Rating
1
Denver
16.3
2
Birmingham
13.7
3
Knoxville
10.0
4
New Orleans
9.3
5
Tulsa
8.7
ESPN Platforms Serve Strong Showing for Third Straight WeekOverall, ESPN platforms registered four of the top five games in Week 3 and represented 65 percent of all college football viewing minutes across all networks. ESPN platforms also own the top three most-watched games of the 2023 season through Week 3.
Saturday saw 3.5 million average viewers across all ESPN platforms (total day viewing), marking its most-viewed regular season college football Saturday in nearly a decade (Nov. 2014). This weekend featured the top Sunday (12.1 million uniques) and No. 2 Saturday (16.5 million uniques) ever for college football content across ESPN digital platforms.
Additional Viewership Highlights:
Tennessee at Florida on ESPN: The Vols/Gators showdown recorded 5.3 million viewers in primetime on ESPN, the fourth best regular season college football game on ESPN since 2019.
In addition to four of the top five most-watched games of the week, ESPN platforms scored seven of the top 10 most-viewed games of Week 3.
ESPN platforms won the weekday, Saturday noon, Saturday prime and Saturday late prime windows this week.
Rank
Window (ET)
Matchup
Platform
P2+ Viewers
1
Late Prime
Colorado State at No. 18 Colorado
ESPN
9.3M
3
Prime
No. 11 Tennessee at Florida
ESPN
5.3M
4
Afternoon
No. 10 Alabama at South Florida
ABC
4.8M
5
Noon
No. 3 Florida State at Boston College
ABC
3.5M
8
Noon
No. 14 LSU at Mississippi State
ESPN
2.8M
9
Prime
Pittsburgh at West Virginia
ABC
2.4M
10
Afternoon
Minnesota at No. 20 North Carolina
ESPN
1.6M
College GameDay Kicks Off Historic Viewership Day in ColoradoCollege GameDay Built by The Home Depot delivered a banner day from Boulder, with the premier pre-game show averaging 2.3 million viewers across ESPN and ESPNU – GameDay’s best September episode since 2010 – to take the top spot among all college football pre-game shows across all networks. In the final hour, 3 million viewers tuned in for the legendary Lee Corso’s 400th Headgear Pick as ESPN platforms averaged 2.5 times as many viewers as the competition.
Colorado’s Comeback Thriller Registers 9.3 Million Viewers; Shatters Previous ESPN Late Prime Viewership High
ESPN’s most-watched late prime game on record
ESPN/ABC’s 4th best regular season game (excl. conf champs) in 6 years
ESPN’s most-streamed regular season college football game of all time
Peak: 11.1M Viewers (11-11:15p ET)
Prime Video Sets NFL Streaming Record with Vikings-Eagles TNF Opener
Prime Video kicked off its 2023 Thursday Night Football schedule last night setting an all-time record as the most-streamed NFL game in history.
According to Nielsen’s custom Integrated Live Streaming Report, Prime Video averaged 16.6 million viewers (AMA) across all media platforms during last night’s Vikings-Eagles showdown, as the defending NFC Champions notched their second win of the season.
According to Nielsen’s National TV Ratings (panel only), last night’s game was up +16% in total viewers over the comparable game in 2022 (15.1M vs. 13.0M), and ranks as the most-watched TNF game ever on Prime Video. Among the key demos, last night’s game was up +15% year-over-year among P18-49 (7.6M vs. 6.6M), and up +17% among P18-34 (3.5M vs. 3.0M) from last season’s TNF Chargers-Chiefs season opener (9/15/22).
The median age of last night’s TNF audience was 47, which is 7 years younger than the NFL average on linear networks through the first week of the season (54).
“We’re so excited to have kicked off our second season of exclusive TNF coverage by setting new all-time audience records. Building on last year’s success, our team worked tirelessly this offseason to raise the bar and enhance the viewing experience even further, so to see this kind of response and turnout from fans is very gratifying,” says Jay Marine, VP, Global Head of Sports, Amazon. “We are thrilled with the continued growth and performance of TNF, the ways in which we are innovating in the space, and the value our sports portfolio provides to Prime members.”
Additional Nielsen National TV Ratings highlights include:
TNF on Prime Video outperformed all other programming on broadcast and cable television Thursday night, among total viewers, P18-49 and P18-34.
Last night’s game reached a peak audience of 17.0M between 9:15-9:30PM ET.
For the week beginning Monday, Sept. 11, TNF on Prime Video ranks as No. 1 program of the week among P18-34 across broadcast and cable.
TNF on Prime Video was the most-watched program of the night across broadcast or cable, out-delivering the No. 2 program by +372% in total viewers (15.1M vs. 3.2M).
No. 4 Nebraska at No. 5 Stanford Serves Up Most-Watched Collegiate Women’s Volleyball Match on Record for ESPN Platforms
The matchup between Nebraska and Stanford pulled 466,000 viewers, marking it the most-watched collegiate women’s volleyball game on record for ESPN platforms.
NBC Sports Delivers Most-Watched NTT INDYCAR SERIES Season in 12 Years
NBC Sports’ 2023 coverage of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES delivered the most-watched INDYCAR season in 12 years (since 2011, NBC Sports’ most-watched season on record, and the most-streamed season ever.
The 2023 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season, headlined by Alex Palou’s second career series championship and Josef Newgarden’s Indy 500 victory, averaged a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 1.32 million viewers across NBC, USA Network, Peacock and NBC Sports digital platforms. This ranks as the most-watched season for the INDYCAR SERIES since 2011 (1.39 million viewers, NBCSN/ABC) and the best in NBC Sports history, up 2% vs. last year’s then-record viewership (1.30 million viewers, NBC/USA Network/NBC Sports Digital). TAD is based on data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.
Half of the season’s 16 races on television delivered a TAD of more than 1 million viewers, tying last year for the highest mark since 2008. NBC’s 13 races posted a TAD of 1.47 million viewers, up 4% vs. last year’s coverage on NBC (1.42 million, 14 races).
Overall viewership was led by the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500, which delivered a TAD of 4.93 million viewers across NBC and Peacock. The race also had a 13 share (percentage of homes watching television at the time of the race), its best in 15 years (2008; 13 share).
Led by comprehensive streaming coverage on Peacock, including the platform’s exclusive presentation of the Honda Indy Toronto on July 16, the 2023 season ranked as the most-streamed INDYCAR season on record with an Average Minute Audience (AMA) of 58,000 viewers, up 15% vs. 2022.
Locally, Indianapolis led all markets with a 3.26 rating for the season. Following are the Top 10 markets for the 2023 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season.
RANK
MARKET
RATING
1
Indianapolis
3.26
2
Knoxville
1.82
3
Louisville
1.52
4
Greenville
1.39
5
Ft. Myers
1.36
6
Dayton, OH
1.30
7
Milwaukee
1.23
8
Cincinnati
1.20
9
Detroit
1.18
9
Richmond-Petersburg
1.18
Coco Gauff’s US Open Victory Marks Most-Viewed Women’s Major Tennis Final Ever on ESPN; Novak Djokovic Clinching 24th Grand Slam Title Becomes Most-Viewed Men’s Final Since 2019
Saturday’s historic Women’s Championship between American rising star Coco Gauff and now new World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka was the most-viewed Women’s Final of any tennis major ever on ESPN. Gauff’s victory ranks as the second most-viewed telecast for the US Open overall, behind only Serena Williams’ final match in 2022, and the most-streamed telecast of the 2023 tournament on ESPN+.
The 2023 US Open Men’s and Women’s Championship on ESPN this past weekend averaged 2.8 million viewers, up +40% compared to 2022, making it the second most-viewed US Open of all time on ESPN, behind only 2019’s Championships.
Women’s Championship: Coco Gauff vs. Aryna Sabalenka
Gauff’s win delivered 3.4 million viewers on ESPN, up +92% vs last year’s Women’s Championship making it the most-viewed Major Women’s Championship ever.
The women’s championship was the most-streamed telecast of the tournament on ESPN+.
Gauff beat Sabalenka 2:6, 6:3 and 6:2 to win her first major title.
Men’s Championship: Daniil Medvedev vs. Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic’s victory over Daniil Medvedev, Djokovic’s record-setting 24th Grand Slam title, averaged 2.3 million viewers, up +8% year-over-year, becoming the most-viewed US Open men’s final since Rafael Nadal faced Medvedev in the 2019 final (2.8 million viewers).
Djokovic won in three sets 6:3, 7:6, 6:3.
Semifinals
The women’s and men’s semifinals combined were the most-viewed of all time on ESPN, averaging 1.9 million viewers, up 1 % from the previous record in 2022.
Women’s Semifinals
Thursday’s women’s semifinal matches between Gauff and Karolina Muchova and American Madison Keys vs. Aryna Sabalenka delivered 1.8 million viewers on ESPN. That represents an increase of 56% over last year.
Gauff defeated Muchova 6:4, 7:5 and Sabalenka beat Madison Keys in three sets 0:6, 7:6, 7:6.
For the entire tournament, 2023 US Open coverage across ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 averaged 1 million viewers overall, up 25% from 2021, and down 17% year over year due in part to the impact of the significant interest around Serena Williams’ final US Open appearance in 2022.
With More than 22.6 Million Viewers, ESPN Delivers Its Most-Watched Monday Night Football Game Ever
ESPN’s 2023 Monday Night Football season debut was a record breaker, as more than 22.6 million viewers watched the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets (ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, ESPN+, ESPN Deportes, and NFL+). The audience of 22,644,000 viewers surpasses the 2009 Minnesota Vikings at Green Bay Packers game, which featured Brett Favre returning to Lambeau Field, as the most-watched ESPN Monday Night Football game (21.8 million viewers).
The record audience peaked at 25.2 million viewers in the first half (9-9:15 p.m. ET), when Buffalo took a 10-3 lead late in the second quarter.
2023 Monday Night Football Season Opener Up Double DigitsThe Bills-Jets is up 14% from the 2022 Monday Night Football opener (19.8 million, Denver at Seattle) – an audience which was a record-setting MNF Week 1 game at the time.
Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli Adds to Record Books Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli on ESPN2 had an audience of 1.52 million viewers, up from the show’s 2022 Week 1 audience. The alternate presentation show now holds ESPN’s 20 most-watched alternate telecasts (more than 100).
Monday Night Football Momentum ContinuesSince the start of the 2022 season, Monday Night Football has now delivered three of its five most-watched Monday games (out of nearly 300 games – beginning in 2006). Looking at September games, ESPN now has surpassed 19 million viewers for each of its standalone games in 2022 and 2023.
ESPN College Football & College GameDay Viewership Wins Week 2
UT Austin vs University of Alabama is ESPN’s best regular season game since 2015
8.8 million viewers
Most-viewed ESPN Saturday game since 2014
Field Pass with The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN2 (799K viewers) is most-watched McAfee altcast
Peak: 10.7M viewers (10:15 – 10:30p ET)
ESPN College GameDay had 1,723,000 viewers
Final hour 2.267M viewers
Four other college matchups surpassed 2M viewers in Week 2
Texas A&M vs. Miami: 4M viewers
Top game of the late afternoon window
Notre Dame vs. NC State: 2.9M viewers
Wisconsin vs. WSU: 2.3M viewers
Auburn University vs. Cal: 2.2M viewers
Big Sports Weekend Fuels New All-Time U.S. Records for ESPN Digital, ESPN App, ESPN Fantasy App
Driven by a huge weekend in sports – including ESPN coverage of college football, US Open Tennis, the NFL, ESPN Fantasy Football, UFC 293, Asia Cup cricket, Professional Lacrosse League, and more – ESPN Digital, the ESPN App and the ESPN Fantasy App set new all-time records this past Saturday and Sunday.
ESPN Digital had its best day ever in the U.S. on Saturday, September 9, with 39.1 million unique visitors, up 8% YoY.
Also on Saturday, the ESPN App set a new all-time, single-day record with 13.7 million unique users in the U.S., up 4% YoY, while the ESPN Fantasy App drew 5.4 million unique visitors, up 20% YoY.
Sunday, September 10, was the best day ever for the ESPN Fantasy App, which had 10.0 million unique visitors in the U.S., up 9% YoY.
NBC Sports Posts Largest Two-Game NFL Kickoff Weekend Audience Since 2015, Averaging Nearly 15 Million Viewers Across NBC and Peacock
With the return of NBC’s Sunday Night Football – primetime’s #1 show for an unprecedented 12 consecutive years – and last Thursday’s NFL Kickoff Game, NBC Sports delivered its largest two-game NFL Kickoff Weekend audience since 2015, averaging 24.9 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, NBC Sports Digital and NFL Digital platforms.
The two games – Detroit Lions-Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL Kickoff Game and Dallas Cowboys-New York Giants in the SNF opener – rank as media’s two most-watched primetime shows since Super Bowl LVII in February on FOX.
Led by Peacock, the two NFL Kickoff Weekend games are NBC Sports’ two most-streamed NFL regular-season games ever.
Additional NBC Sports’ NFL Kickoff Weekend viewership notes:
Despite the most-lopsided shutout in NBC Sunday Night Football history (since 2006), the Cowboys’ 40-0 win over the Giants on Sunday averaged a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 21.8 million viewers – up 4% from the teams’ last meeting on SNF (a seven-point game in Week 2 of 2018; 21.0 million). Viewership peaked early in the first half at 25.9 million viewers from 9-9:15 p.m. ET.
Following a Nielsen adjustment, the TAD for Lions-Chiefs has increased to 27.5 million viewers, ranking as the largest NFL Kickoff Game audience since 2015 (surpassing the 2021 opener). In addition, the adjusted peak audience for the game is 30 million viewers from 9:15-9:30 p.m. ET.
NBC Sports’ two-game NFL Kickoff Weekend average of 24.9 million viewers is up 7% from last year (23.3 million).
The Average Minute Audience (AMA) for Thursday night’s live stream via Peacock, NBC Sports Digital platforms, and NFL Digital platforms, was 2.8 million viewers – the largest audience ever for an NBC Sports regular-season NFL game and second-all time for any NBC NFL game, topping three Super Bowls (trailing only Super Bowl LVI in 2022).
Led by Peacock, Sunday night’s game delivered an AMA of 1.8 million viewers – NBC Sports’ most-streamed Sunday night NFL game on record and up 11% from last year.
Sunday night’s game (8:23 p.m.-11:03 p.m. ET) registered a national TV household rating of 10.4/29.
Viewership figures are based upon live + same day data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.
TOP METERED MARKETS FOR COWBOYS-GIANTS (based on 44 markets available):
1.
Dallas
27.4/63
2.
San Antonio
21.1/52
3.
Austin
15.9/44
4.
Norfolk
14.4/35
5.
Kansas City
14.2/36
6.
Philadelphia
12.9/31
7.
Washington, DC
12.4/36
8.
New York
12.3/33
9.
Nashville
12.2/30
10.
Charlotte
12.1/34
Texas/Alabama on ESPN & ESPN2 Delivers 8.8 Million Viewers – Best Regular Season Game on ESPN Since 2015
Longhorns/Crimson Tide Thriller Peaks with 10.7 Million Viewers
Most-Viewed ESPN Saturday Game Since 2014
Field Pass with The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN2 Scores 799,000 Viewers – Most-Watched McAfee Alternate Telecast and Most-Viewed College Football Alternate Telecast Since 2018 CFP National Championship
