Ratings Roundup: NFL Week 2, CFB Week 3, ESPN's US Open, NBCN's IndyCar, and WNBA Playoffs By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Friday, September 22, 2017 - 7:50 am
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Ratings roundup is a rundown of ratings news from the past week and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week's edition, we recap week 2 of the NFL season, week 3 of the college football season, ESPN's US Open boost, IndyCar's second best season ever on NBCSN, and the WNBA's increased ratings heading into the Finals.
NFL Week 2 Recap
ESPN Monday Night Football: ESPN's Week 2 Monday Night Football game delivered a total live audience (TV Streaming) of 12,741,000 average viewers across ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes. On ESPN, Lions-Giants averaged a 7.4 US household rating and 12,287,000 viewers, which is up 1% from last year's Eagles-Bears game.
The game peaked during the 9:15-9:30 p.m. quarter hour with an 8.6 US household rating and 14,465,000 viewers. On ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes, Lions-Giants averaged a 0.3 Hispanic US household rating. Additionally, across Twitter and Facebook, MNF was the most social telecast of the night for the second week in a row. In Detroit, the game delivered an 11.3 rating on ESPN and a 17.4 rating on WXYZ-ABC, for a combined 28.7 rating in the market. In New York, the game delivered a 9.4 rating on ESPN and a 5.4 on WPIX-CW, for a combined 14.8 rating in the market.
NBC Sunday Night Football: Packers-Falcons earned an 11.3 rating and 20.2 million viewers on the Week 2 edition of NBC's Sunday Night Football, down 11% in ratings and viewership from Packers-Vikings last year (12.7, 22.8M). The Falcons' win was the lowest rated and least-watched Week 2 edition of SNF since Steelers-Browns in 2008 (10.8, 17.8M). (SportsMediaWatch)
NFL on FOX: The Week 2 NFL national window, primarily featuring Cowboys-Broncos, drew the largest audience of the season thus far with a 14.3 rating and 26 million viewers on FOX, up 17% in ratings and 22% in viewership from last year's Colts-Broncos matchup on CBS (12.2, 21.4M). (SportsMediaWatch)
NFL on CBS: CBS's Week 2 NFL single-header featuring Patriots-Saints delivered an 8.4 rating and 14.5 million viewers on CBS Sunday, down 24% in ratings and viewership from last year on FOX (11.0, 19.2M) and down 14% and 13% respectively from 2015 on CBS (9.8, 16.7M). The 8.4 rating is the lowest for the Week 2 singleheader since at least 1998. The first two NFL windows on CBS this season have both declined double-digits to multi-year lows. (SportsMediaWatch)
NFL Network's Thursday Night Football: 2017's Week # 2 Thursday Night Football game on NFL Network only (no OTA included), Houston @ Cincinnati, averaged a 4.9 HH rating and 8.1M total viewers on TV nationally, up 30% and 32% respectively versus 2016's average across the 4 Thursday Night Football games on NFL Network only (3.8 HH and 6.1M viewers). NFL Network's exclusive presentation of the game was also the most streamed regular season game ever across NFL Mobile by Verizon and the NFL's digital properties (using NFL Network authentication), topping last year's Baltimore @ Pittsburgh game on Christmas. Combining the digital and NFL Network only audiences, the viewership was up 3% versus 2016's first NFL Network only game, Miami @ Cincinnati (8.0M viewers).
College Football Week 3 Recap
ABC/ESPN: ABC's Saturday Night Football televised college football's most-watched prime-time game in week 3 as Clemson's 47-21 victory over Louisville (8 p.m.) delivered a total live audience of 5,206,000 viewers, outpacing the TV audience for Fox's USC-Texas double-OT game (4,912,000 viewers). SNF also grew its own audience from 2016, as the Louisville-Clemson audience was up 79% from last season's week 3 SNF game (USC vs. Stanford). ABC's Saturday Night Football is averaging a total live audience of 8,630,000 viewers through the first three weeks of the season, the most-watched college football franchise on TV and up 51% from franchise's first three games last season. While televising the top eight most-watched games on cable in week 3, ESPN/ESPN2 also experienced significant total live audience increases in key windows: LSU at Mississippi State (7 p.m. on ESPN) drew 2,581,000 viewers, up 20% from Texas A&M at Auburn's 2016 matchup; Notre Dame at Boston College (3:30 p.m. on ESPN) drew 1,845,000 viewers, up 75% from last year's Pittsburgh-Oklahoma State game; Oklahoma State at Pittsburgh (noon on ESPN) drew 1,621,000 viewers, up 62% from Miami at Appalachian State in 2016; and Colorado State at Alabama (7 p.m. on ESPN2) drew 1,653,000 viewers, up 35% from Mississippi State-LSU last year. In the season's first three weeks, ESPN alone is averaging 2,157,000 television viewers a game (17 games), 21% higher than the average audience on FS1 and Fox combined (14 games) and 160% higher than the average viewership on FS1 (seven games).
Fox/FS1: Saturday night's USC double-overtime 27-24 win over Texas was FOX's most-watched college football game of the year. The contest drew 4,912,000 viewers on FOX and shattered FOX Sports GO's regular-season college football record with an average minute audience of 41,310, a 13% increase over the previous mark of 36,718 set last year for Texas-Oklahoma. Earlier in the day, Ohio State's win over Army attracted 2,506,000 viewers on the FOX broadcast network, while Northern Illinois' win over Nebraska on FS1 drew 808,000 viewers, an 11% increase over the channel's 2016 Saturday college football average. Overall, college football on FOX and FS1 is off to its best start ever, averaging 1,778,000 viewers per game across the two networks, including 668,000 in the Adults 18-49 demographic. FOX and FS1
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Ratings Roundup: NFL Week 2, CFB Week 3, ESPN's US Open, NBCN's IndyCar, and WNBA Playoffs By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor 
