Ratings Roundup: ESPN2 Second Screen Aids NL Wild Card Game Ratings; Chiefs-Broncos Top Year Old Mark on Monday Night Football By Kristian Hernandez, Assistant Editor Wednesday, October 3, 2018 - 9:00 am
Print This Story
Story Highlights
Ratings roundup is a rundown of rating news from the past week and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week's edition, ESPN's Wild Card Game rises over 50% from the 2017 edition, the 2018 NFL season is through Week 4 of action, Week 5 of college football finishes with the Buckeyes narrowly defeating the Nittany Lions in front of 9.3 million home viewers, the Ryder Cup recovers from their 2014 ratings struggle, the first ever MLB tiebreaking doubleheader exceeds records for the afternoon time slot, the NASCAR ROVAL creates the most TV buzz since 2014 in Charlotte, and NESN compiles their ratings for the 2018 MLB regular season.
ESPN Platforms Raise 59% in the National League Wild Card Game
ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN Deportes combined to draw 7,100,000 viewers for the 2018 MLB National League Wild Card Game presented by Hankook Tire. The 13-inning thriller, in which the Colorado Rockies defeated the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, became the fourth most-watched MLB Wild Card Game ever, according to Fast Nationals from Nielsen. Tuesday's telecast peaked across ESPN platforms with 8,400,000 viewers from 11-11:30 p.m. ET.
Tuesday's NL Wild Card Game telecasts outdrew the 2017 NL Wild Card Game by 61%, while also outdrawing the 2017 AL Wild Card Game on ESPN by 2%. ESPN won the night across all of cable television for Tuesday, Oct. 2.
NFL Week 4 Concludes With Most Watched Monday Night Football Game Since September 2017
The Monday Night Football matchup - a dramatic 27-23 Kansas City Chiefs come-from-behind victory over the Denver Broncos - averaged 13.3 million viewers across ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN Deportes. It is the most-viewed Monday Night Football since last year's Cowboys-Cardinals game on September 25 (13.8 million viewers).
The Week 4 MNF audience reflects a 10% increase compared to last year's Redskins at Chiefs Week 4 game (12.2 million viewers).
Chiefs-Broncos helped ESPN win the night among all networks, broadcast or cable, in households, viewers, and all key male and adult demos (18-34, 18-49, 25-54). The telecast also delivered the highest-rated telecast of the night across all broadcast and cable networks among the same demos - television households, viewers (P2 ), key male, and people demos. This is the fourth straight Monday that ESPN has won the night in all key categories.
On ESPN, the Week 4 MNF telecast averaged a 7.9 US household rating and 13.2 million viewers. The telecast peaked from 11:00-11:15 p.m. ET with a 9.5 US household rating and 15.8 million viewers.
On ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes, Chiefs-Broncos averaged an additional 120,000 viewers.
In local markets:
In Kansas City, the game delivered a 15.5 rating on ESPN and a 30.3 rating on KMBC-ABC, for a combined 45.8 rating in the market.
In Denver, the game delivered a 15.8 rating on ESPN and a 20.7 on KTVD-NBC, for a combined 36.5 rating in the market.
The top 10 metered markets (not including those of the competing teams): New Orleans (14.7), Albuquerque-Santa Fe (14.0), Washington, DC (12.5), Norfolk (12.0), Richmond-Petersburg (11.8), Baltimore (11.6), Sacramento (11.2), Tulsa (11.0), Phoenix (11.0), and San Diego (10.9)
CBS Sports' Week 4 NFL doubleheader coverage of The NFL on CBS on Sunday scored with increases of 33% in viewership and household rating for its national 4:25 PM, ET game window.
Through four weeks, THE NFL ON CBS' season-to-date ratings are up 8% and viewership is up 7% from a year ago (9.5/22 vs. 8.8/20 and 16.3 million vs. 15.2 million, respectively).
CBS' national 4:25 PM, ET game window was the most-watched and highest-rated game of Week 4 on any network averaging 20.7 million viewers, up 33% from last year (15.6M). The game earned an average national household rating/share of 12.1/24, up 33% from last year (9.1/19).
The regional game window was seen by 15.4 million viewers, up 32% from last year (11.7M). The game earned a rating/share of 9.3/22, up 33% from last year (7.0/16)
According to SportsMediaWatch, the Fox single header featuring Cowboys-Lions and Browns-Raiders captured a 10.3 rating and 18.0 million viewers - down 10% in ratings and viewership from last year, when coverage featured Rams-Cowboys or Panthers-Patriots (11.5, 20.1M), but up 10% and 9% respectively from 2016 on CBS (9.4, 16.4M)
Ravens-Steelers had a 10.4 rating and 17.9 million viewers on NBC's Sunday Night Football over the weekend, up 9% in ratings and 7% in viewership from last year (Colts-Seahawks: 9.6, 16.7M). Compared to 2016 (Chiefs-Steelers), ratings increased a tick (from 10.3) but viewership fell 1% (from 18.1M) (SMW)
The Thursday Night Football Presented by Bud Light contest between the Los Angeles Rams and the Minnesota Vikings was seen by an average audience of 15.1 million viewers across all platforms, including Fox, NFL Network, Fox Deportes, NFL digital, Fox Sports digital, Amazon, and Yahoo Sports - up 6% versus the 2017 10-game Thursday Night Football average (TV all digital).
The Nielsen-measured audience was 14.5 million viewers, up 5% versus the 2017 10-game Thursday Night Football average on NBC/CBS and NFL Network.
Digital streaming across Amazon Prime Video, Twitch, NFL digital platforms, Fox Sports digital platforms, and Yahoo Sports produced an average minute audience of 816K - an increase of 86% over the 2017 10-game Thursday Night Football average and the highest digital viewership ever for Thursday Night Football.
Amazon Prime Video and Twitch reached a total of 2.0M combined viewers worldwide for the Fox NFL Thursday pregame show and the Vikings-
