
Ratings Roundup: 2021 WNBA Regular Season Experiences 49% Increase; NHL Debuts on ESPN, TNT to Positive Numbers By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Friday, October 22, 2021 - 6:32 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
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, WNBA Finals Sees 49% increase, ESPN's NBA coverage opens big, ESPN's NFL studio shows are way up, Paramount draws big audiences for NFL and college football, ESPN's Monday Night Football and NFL on Fox both continue to show viewership growth over last year, TBS and Fox's LDS coverage gets a boost, and the debut of the NHL on TNT and ESPN drew record numbers.
The 2021 WNBA Finals on ESPN networks and ABC - Chicago Sky victory over the Phoenix Mercury - averaged 548,000 viewers across four games, a 23 percent increase from 2020 (447,000 average viewers in three games) and a 42 percent surge from 2019 (386,000 average viewers in five games). The 2021 Finals are the most viewed since the 2017 Finals between the LA Sparks and the Minnesota Lynx, which registered 563,000 viewers. (ESPN)
The New York Knicks thrilling double overtime victory over the Boston Celtics was ESPN's most-watched Wednesday season-opening game in 18 years, according to Nielsen. The telecast averaged 1.96 million viewers, peaking with 2.87 million viewers from 10:30-10:45 p.m. ET. Overall, last night was ESPN's most-watched season-opening doubleheader since 2017. The doubleheader, which included Knicks vs. Celtics and Phoenix Suns vs. Denver Nuggets, averaged 1.74 million viewers. This is up 39 percent vs. 2020, up 10 percent vs. 2019 and up 22 percent vs. 2018. (ESPN)
ESPN's NFL studio shows Sunday NFL Countdown, Monday Night Countdown, NFL Live, and NFL Rewind are experiencing year-over-year audience growth and delivering significant increases in key demos, including persons 18-24. The added audience for the studio shows, which span every day of the week except for Saturday, add to the success of ESPN's overall NFL portfolio, which includes Monday Night Football's significant audience growth and Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli garnering record audiences for alternate telecasts. (ESPN)
Paramount , featuring live NFL ON CBS local market games, scored an NFL regular-season viewership record for total streams, minutes streamed and unique viewers. Additionally, Sunday's Dallas Cowboys vs. New England Patriots game was the most-streamed NFL regular-season contest ever on the service, surpassing the Dallas-LA Chargers matchup in Week 2. Through Week 6 of the NFL season, Paramount has seen double-digit growth in total streams, streaming minutes and unique viewers compared to the first six weeks of the 2020 season. (CBS Sports)
Paramount , featuring live SEC on CBS games, scored triple-digit growth in total streams and minutes streamed for Saturday's Georgia-Kentucky game when compared to the 2019 LSU-Mississippi State game, the most recent game in the comparable window. (CBS Sports)
ESPN's Monday Night Football experienced year-over-year gains for the fourth consecutive week (Weeks 3 through 6), as 12.6 million viewers (ESPN and ESPN Deportes) watched the Buffalo Bills and Tennessee Titans (October 18, 8 p.m. ET). The Bills-Titans audience 12,528,000 (ESPN only) was up 6% over the Dallas Cowboys' Week 6 appearance in 2020, when they hosted the Cardinals (11,831,000 viewers), and also is second-most-viewed Week 6 game since the 2015 season. (ESPN)
This week's NFL on Fox singleheader delivered year-over-year ratings growth. (Fox Sports)
The NLDS presented by Good Sam Game 5 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants averaged 6.5 million total viewers to deliver the most watched LDS telecast this postseason and the best NLDS game telecast on the network since 2017 (NLDS Game 5 - Cubs vs. Nationals). Dodgers/Giants NLDS Game 5 is up 75% over last year's LDS Game 5 (Yankees/Rays) on TBS. (Turner Sports)
TNT's first-ever NHL regular season telecast - the New York Rangers facing the Washington Capitals (7:40-10:14 p.m. ET) - is the most-watched game to ever air on the second night of nationally televised NHL coverage, among total viewers and all key adult and male demos. That makes it the largest audience for the second night of nationally televised NHL regular season action in the nearly 30 years on record. (TBS Sports)
The 2021 NHL FaceOff doubleheader marked the return of the NHL to the ESPN networks for the first time since 2004 and set a new high-water mark as the most-viewed NHL season-opening doubleheader on record. Combined, the NHL Faceoff doubleheader on ESPN averaged 884,000 viewers on ESPN over the more than five-hour window, which is up 54 percent over the 2019-20 season-opening doubleheader and up 19 percent over the 2020-21 season-opening tripleheader. It also topped the 2018 season-opening doubleheader by 81 percent. Among viewers 18-49, the doubleheader is up 28 percent vs the 2020-21 season-opening tripleheader, and up 56 percent and 74 percent respectively vs the 2019 and 2018 opening doubleheaders. (ESPN)
Fox's ALDS elimination game between the Astros and White Sox drew 1.8 million viewers across FS1, FOX Deportes and FOX Sports streaming services. (Fox Sports)
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
14/10/2025
SVG Europe Summit 2025: All Sessions Now Available to Watch on SVG PLAYNetworking event that preceded IBC2025 shone a light on elite live sports innovation acro...
14/10/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Author Rich Podolsky on Writing Madden & Summerall: How They Revo...
14/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Michael Reiners, Coordinating Producer, FloRacingThe Illinois State grad steers a vast schedule of motorsports events at tracks across the countr...
14/10/2025
Content protection: Getting the right management for your DRM By Neal Romanek
Friday, October 10, 2025 - 10:11
Print This Story
Eluvio power the EPCR'...
14/10/2025
As League Takes Over Ops, NBA TV and NBA App Add 60 Games, Weekday Studio Show, ...
14/10/2025
Time and effort: World's largest student-led broadcast prepares to go On Air...
14/10/2025
(L-R) Guest, Kimberly Robinson Jones, Geeta Gandbhir, Pamela Dias, and Takema Ro...
14/10/2025
Lossless ist jetzt mit Spotify Premium verf gbar.
Verlustfreies Audio war eine...
14/10/2025
La qualit Lossless est disponible sur Spotify Premium.
Le format sans perte de...
14/10/2025
For the seventh edition of Spotify and FC Barcelona's artist jersey series, ...
14/10/2025
Spotify is committed to bringing the best listening experience to all our users, and that includes parents and families. That's why we're expanding mana...
14/10/2025
Since its debut, the Spotify Original podcast Caso 63 has been more than just a story; it's been a cultural sensation. The science fiction thriller captivat...
14/10/2025
Desde su debut, el podcast original de Spotify Caso 63 ha sido mucho m s que una historia: se ha convertido en un fen meno cultural. Este thriller de ciencia fi...
14/10/2025
Lossless p Spotify Premium r h r.
Lossless-ljud har varit en av de mest efterl ngtade funktionerna p Spotify och nu, ntligen, har den b rjat rullas ut til...
14/10/2025
Early next year, your favorite video podcasts are getting a bigger stage. Spotify and Netflix are teaming up to bring sports, culture, lifestyle, and true crime...
14/10/2025
Last week, the 4th global Safety Day took place at all SGL Carbon sites.
This years Safety Day focused on hazardous substances. Various information events, wor...
14/10/2025
From bowser to basket, 9 in 10 Aussies are feeling the impact of rising prices
26% of households earn over $160k, but are still concerned about rising prices...
14/10/2025
New players take a bite out of big bank share as consumers increasingly value tr...
14/10/2025
56% of Aussies are looking for a coastal holiday, while 40% are planning a road ...
14/10/2025
51% of Aussies want a hybrid car and 36% want a full EV
Toyota leads the market
75% research online before a new car purchase
Sydney - October 14, 2025 - Aus...
14/10/2025
Unilever leads the market
Beverages, smartphones, and food dominate category sp...
14/10/2025
Top insurance advertisers
Biggest growth categories
Sector ad spend up 4.7...
14/10/2025
WAYNE, Pa. The private equity firm Saothair Capital Partners, LLC has announced that it has completed the acquisition of GatesAir through a newly-formed affilia...
14/10/2025
Media Excel, a leading provider of encoding and transcoding solutions, today announced that Space Norway, a leading provider of satellite services and operator ...
14/10/2025
Jason Tyler has joined ZTransform, a leader in media environment innovation, as Inside Sales and Procurement Manager bringing commercial and operational focus t...
14/10/2025
14 10 2025 - Media release Tiny toys, big missions: Knee High Spies launches on ABC this November
Knee High Spies
Kids, assemble! The ABC and Screen Australi...
14/10/2025
Abu Dhabi, UAE October 14, 2025: Space42 (ADX: SPACE42), the AI-powered SpaceT...
14/10/2025
Abu Dhabi, UAE October 14, 2025: Space42 (ADX: SPACE42), the UAE-based AI-powered SpaceTech company with a global reach, has signed a Memorandum of Understand...
14/10/2025
Joe Wilkinson and David Earl will explore their favourite sitcoms together with help from stars such as Ricky Gervais
14th October, London: Comedians, writers,...
14/10/2025
October 14th, 2025 ANNA SARGENT, VICTOR SLEZAK, ALI AHN, MARCELINE HUGOT, AND S...
14/10/2025
The Sky Original event series - a symphony of genius, rivalry and vengeance - al...
14/10/2025
ESA awards Rohde & Schwarz for contributions to 30 years European Satellite Navi...
14/10/2025
The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) today unveiled key highlights of the 2026 HPA Tech Retreat, scheduled for Feb. 15-19 at the Westin Rancho Mirage Go...
14/10/2025
Rena Ayer Joins Red Seat Ventures as Senior Vice President, Content & Talent Par...
14/10/2025
Imelda May explores her relationship with the Irish language through songs and sean-n s singing
Friday 17 October, 8.30pm on RT One and RT Player
Watch tr...
14/10/2025
AI is transforming the way enterprises build, deploy and scale intelligent applications. As demand surges for enterprise-grade AI applications that offer speed,...
14/10/2025
At Oracle AI World, NVIDIA and Oracle announced they are deepening their collabo...
13/10/2025
Spectrum Brings Selected L.A. Lakers Games to Apple Vision Pro With New Immersiv...
13/10/2025
Media Climate Accord aims to offer united approach to M&E industry sustainabilit...
13/10/2025
Riot Games streamlines production of Valorant Champions Paris with ST 2110 flypa...
13/10/2025
Feeling the NRG: Riot Games puts on a show for Valorant Champions Paris final By Jo Ruddock
Monday, October 13, 2025 - 09:17
Print This Story
After more t...
13/10/2025
FOX Sports MLB Postseason Audio Aims To Make Officials' Calls More AccurateA1 Joe Carpenter hopes to bring some baseball CSI' to the ABS ump-cam system...
13/10/2025
By Katie Arthurs
Whether told through dance, ceremony, spoken word, or visual a...
13/10/2025
New SBS and NITV Original RECKLESS a Deadly Funny Thriller Straight Out of Fre...
13/10/2025
Regional sports network moves from satellite to IP to cut distribution costs by more than half and streamline broadcast and direct-to-consumer delivery
Mid-Atl...
13/10/2025
Delta Live, the award-winning audio supplier, has underlined its position at the forefront of live sound with significant investments in cutting edge audio syst...
13/10/2025
** MEDIA ALERT **
VIZ Media Takes Center Stage at NYCC 2025 with World Premi...
13/10/2025
Back to All News
Feel the Excitement With the Trailer for the Documentary Serie...
13/10/2025
The next AI revolution starts where rockets launch. NVIDIA DGX Spark's first...