Ratings Roundup: ESPN Tips Off College Hoops; NHRA Up on Fox Over Last Year on ESPN

Ratings roundup is a rundown of ratings news from the past week and is derived from press releases and reports around the web. In this week's edition, ESPN's Champions Classic and Armed Forces Classic, NHRA sees growth on Fox and FS1, NFL Week 10, ESPN/ABC College Football Week 11, the USA-Mexico World Cup qualifier, the CFL Playoffs on TSN, and more.Big Numbers for ESPN's College Hoops Tipoff

No. 7 Kansas' 77-75 upset-win over top-ranked Duke during the second game of ESPN's annual State Farm Champions Classic on Tuesday, Nov. 15 earned a total live audience (TV streaming) of 2,444,000 viewers, up 28 percent from last year's Kansas vs. Michigan State game (1,906,000 viewers). The streaming audience of 83,000 average minute viewers is ESPN's most streamed men's college basketball game ever, topping last year's Kentucky vs. Duke Champions Classic game (78,000 viewers).

The first game of the doubleheader, No. 2 Kentucky's 68-49 win over No. 13 Michigan State saw total live audience of 2,150,000 viewers, including a streaming audience of 67,000 average viewers - a top five men's regular season streaming audience ever for ESPN. The two Champions Classic games combined had a streaming average minute audience of 76,000 viewers, up 21 percent over the 2015 event.

In between the Champions Classic doubleheader, the latest edition of the College Football Playoff committee rankings were exclusively unveiled on College Football Playoff: Top 25 (approx. 9 p.m.). The 30-minute special earned a total live audience of 2,726,000 viewers.

The second game of ESPN's Armed Forces Classic doubleheader - No. 11 Indiana's 103-99 overtime, upset-win against No. 3 Kansas on college basketball's opening night - is the most-watched game in the five-year history of the event with a total live audience (TV streaming) of 1,592,000 viewers. The first game of the doubleheader - No. 10 Arizona's 65-63 thrilling victory against No. 12 Michigan State - is now the third-most watched with a total live audience of 1,222,000 viewers behind the inaugural Armed Forces Classic in 2012 featuring UConn's upset over Michigan State (1,290,000 viewers)

NHRA Sees Growth on Fox, FS1

The inaugural season of NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series on FOX and FS1 wrapped up the first season of a multiyear partnership last weekend in Pomona, CA, as 24 events averaged 634,000 viewers, a 24% increase over their performance on ESPN and ESPN 2 last year (513,000). Four events (Las Vegas, Atlanta, Englishtown and Indianapolis), topped the one-million viewer mark, with four more scoring at least 750,000 viewers. The FOX Sports audience also trended younger throughout the season, as NHRA on FOX/FS1 events finished up 47% among P18-49 (162,000 vs. 110,000) and 43% among P25-54 (218,000 vs. 152,000)

NFL Week 10 Roundup

Week 10's AMERICA'S GAME OF THE WEEK on FOX, featuring the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers, was the highest-rated and most-watched game of the 2016 NFL season, delivering FOX Sports an impressive 28.88 million viewers on average, with a huge 16.4/30 household rating/share (according Nielsen Fast Nationals). Season-to-date, AGOTW is averaging a 14.7/28 with 25.9 million viewers. While that is off just -3% from last year's audience (26.8 million viewers) on FOX, it still easily ranks as the highest-rated and most-watched program in all of television this year.

Season-to-date, FOX NFL SUNDAY pregame show is averaging a 3.0/8 and 4.73 million viewers, up 30% over its direct competition, CBS's NFL Today (vs. 2.3/6 - 3.52 million viewers). Thus far in 2016, FOX NFL KICKOFF is averaging a 0.8/2 and 1.24 million viewers, up 14% compared to last year's 0.7/2 and 1.07 million viewers

NBC Sunday Night Football's Super Bowl XLIX rematch in which the Seahawks beat the Patriots averaged a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 22.7 million viewers across NBC and NBC Sports Digital platforms - marking the most-watched Week 10 NFL primetime game since 1998 (according to Nielsen Fast Nationals and Adobe Analytics). The NBC-only broadcast of Seahawks-Patriots averaged 22.51 million viewers ranking as the most-watched Week 10 NFL primetime game in 18 years (22.54 million for Packers-Steelers on ABC's MNF, 11/9/98). In addition, the 22.5 million viewers topped last year's Week 10 SNF game by 16% (19.4 million for Cardinals-Seahawks).

NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports App registered 956,000 uniques for Seahawks-Patriots - NBC's highest-ever total for a Sunday NFL game, excluding Super Bowls. Last night's uniques is also up 121% from last year's Week 10 SNF game (433,000). The Average Minute Audience (AMA) for last night's live stream via the NBC Sports app, NBCSports.com, NBC.com TV Everywhere,' and NFL Mobile from Verizon was 189,000 viewers.

NBC-only viewership for Seahawks-Patriots peaked at 24.5 million from 9:30-9:45 p.m. ET, while the closing minutes of the game (11:30-11:43 p.m. ET) averaged 23.0 million viewers. The game's (8:32-11:43 p.m. ET) registered a TV-only national household rating of 12.7/22 - up 11% from Cardinals-Seahawks last year (11.4/20)

ESPN/ABC College Football Week 11

ABC's Saturday Night Football featuring Michigan at Iowa (8 p.m. ET) was the most-watched game of week 11 across all networks as it delivered a total live audience (TV streaming) of 6,539,000 viewers. The total live audience for Iowa's last-second, 14-13 victory was up 10% compared to 2015's week 11 Saturday Night Football game (Oklahoma at Baylor). The TV audience for the Big Ten game (6,442,000 viewers) peaked at 10,021,000 viewers during the Hawkeyes' game-winning drive (11:15 p.m. - 11:30 p.m.) and led to the ABC being the most-watched prime time network across households, viewers and all key demos: me

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