Sports Media Watch
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Sports media news and information. Run by Jon Lewis. Daily ratings here:
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If JJ Redick -- ESPN's youngest NBA game analyst -- works to the age Hubie Brown is now, he'll be calling games in 2073.
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Thunder-Rockets Game 7 most-watched NBA game since January 31, most-watched first round game on cable since 2018, most-watched first round game on ESPN since 2017.
Five of 11 most-watched NBA games since 7/30 restart have come since suspension of play:
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2K
LSU-South Carolina was the most-watched sporting event of Thursday night, topping the NBA on TNT (Celtics-Heat) head-to-head:
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NBA should end the between-quarters coaches interview. Always runs over into the first play of the next quarter and it adds nothing.
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Lakers-Nuggets Game 1 most-watched conference final opener in five years, +13% from last year's WCF Game 1 on TNT (Mavericks-Warriors).
Draft Lottery most-watched in four (since Zion in '19):
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1K
When LeBron debuted in 2003, ESPN's Magic-Knicks lead-in went into overtime and preempted pretty much the entire first quarter.
ESPN is minutes away from having to broadcast Wemby’s generational debut on The Ocho because of Isaiah Hartenstein and Kristaps Porzingis.
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Warriors-Nets second-most watched game of NBA season
-- Golden State has played in 3 of the top 5, 5 of the top 7 and 6 of the top 11 games thus far
-- TNT Tuesday night NBA viewership +54% over comparable Thursday windows in '19
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Here is what sports viewership looks like right now:
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I'm beating a dead horse by now, but the national networks are really shortchanging the viewers when it comes to crowd noise.
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D'Backs-Phillies Game 7 nears nine million viewer mark, most-watched postseason game (excluding World Series) since Braves-Dodgers Game 7 in the 2020 "bubble."
LCS viewership not only finishes up from last year, but reaches five-year high:
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Here's something new: ESPN will air "WNBA Countdown" prior to WNBA playoff games. I believe that will be the first WNBA pregame show ever on any network.
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Eagles-Browns highest rated NFL preseason game on FOX since 2012, most-watched weeknight preseason game on any network (excluding HOF game) since 2014:
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Viewership trends:
NBA Finals Game 1: -45% to all-time low
Stanley Cup Final: -61% to 13-year low
U.S. Open (golf) final round: -56% to all-time low
Kentucky Derby: -43% to all-time low
Indy 500: -32% to all-time low
All of them May and June events moved to August and September.
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Georgia's 60-point rout of FSU is the most-watched Orange Bowl (excluding playoff years) since 2017:
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MLB All-Star Game scores viewer bump over 2019, comfortably tops NBA All-Star Game in March and most recent Pro Bowl in January of last year:
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A record 12.3 million viewers for Monday's Iowa-LSU NCAA women's Elite Eight game, the largest NCAA women's basketball audience ever measured by Nielsen. Previous high was 11.8 million for Cheryl Miller's first title game in 1983.
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We have to reduce the moralizing on sports TV. If a player decides to play a bowl game, that's the right decision for them. If they decide to opt out, that's the right decision for them. Enough of the debate.
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Raptors-Warriors averaged 1.86 million viewers, comfortably ahead of Clippers-Rockets on TNT earlier in the night, Zion-Luka on ESPN Wednesday and the Lakers on TNT Tuesday.
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Warriors-Kings is officially the ABC game Saturday night.
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FSU-Oklahoma most-watched game of bowl season thus far, followed by Washington-Texas, Oregon-UNC and Arkansas-Kansas:
FSU-OU most-watched bowl game entering New Year’s Six
Bowl ratings roundup.
www.sportsmediawatch.com
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Stanford-Arizona Women's NCAA Tournament national championship is most-watched since 2014
-- Out-of-home boosts audience 12% from fast-nationals (3.6M) to finals (4.1M)
-- Game is Sunday's top TV show in A18-34 and 18-49, topping ABC's "American Idol"
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Here are the ten most-watched (non-football) sporting events since 2019. Game 6 was just the sixth of these to top the ten million viewer mark:
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Ratings: final round of
#TheMasters
is lowest rated since 1957, declining 51% from Tiger's win last year (and 57% from 2018). Well below previous lows.
Joins World Series, NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Final, U.S. Open, Triple Crown in setting all-time lows.
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NYP: ESPN, NFL, close to deal on strategic partnership
-- NFL would acquire a stake in ESPN
-- ESPN would assume control of NFL Network, RedZone and the rest of NFL Media
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As late as 1985, CBS was airing NBA conference final games at 11:30 PM -- Pacific time.
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Winter Olympics ratings in record-low territory on final weekend
-- Lowest rated Closing Ceremony ever
-- Lowest rated primetime Olympic telecast ever (Saturday)
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Vanderbilt-Michigan scores largest CWS Game 3 audience since 2014; also third-largest CWS audience overall since 2014.
Most-watched baseball or softball game on ESPN this year, topping Red Sox-Yankees:
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Iowa-SC averages 5.5M viewers on ESPN (fast-nationals)
-- Most-watched women's national semifinal on record
-- Most-watched women's tournament game since '04
-- Most-watched CBB game on ESPN (men or women) since '08
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Here are the ten most-watched (non-football) sporting events since sports went on hiatus in March of last year:
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Warriors were the most-watched team on national TV, averaging 2.8M over 30 games (not including NBA TV). Cavs 2nd, Knicks 5th, Pacers last.
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Kings-Warriors continues to lead NBA playoff viewership:
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Have to give ESPN/ABC credit. Has to be the most extensive post-SCF celebration coverage ever on network TV. Fully preempted 11 PM ET newscasts and still going.
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Another viewership record for Caitlin Clark as Iowa's first round matchup with Holy Cross tops 3.2 million viewers on ABC.
Largest women's tournament audience prior to the Final Four:
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400% of all "Bones" viewership comes in the two minutes before the NBA on TNT starts.
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NBA All-Star Game ratings, viewership *easily* the lowest ever.
Plus:
-- All-Star Saturday Night and Rising Stars also down to new lows
-- Celebrity Game bucks trend of record-lows with an actual increase over last year
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Caitlin Clark's final regular season game obliterates viewership mark with 3.3 million:
-- Tops Celtics' rout of Warriors on same day
-- Trails only NASCAR Cup Series (Vegas) as top sportscast of weekend:
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Championship matchups in 2023:
-- Rangers-D'Backs
-- Heat-Nuggets
-- Golden Knights-Panthers
-- UConn-SDSU
Just in case you were ever wondering if sports are rigged for TV ratings purposes.
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Michigan-Washington is most-watched CFP National Championship in four years, up 45% from last year.
Second-most watched game of season (Rose Bowl
#1
), marking third time in four years that the national title game averaged fewer viewers than a semifinal:
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Curry's return boosts NBA on TNT
-- Network's tenth-most watched game all season
-- Also its most-watched game since December that did not involve the Lakers
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NBA Christmas ratings history. Top Christmas games dating back to 2001:
-- Heat-Lakers in 2004
-- Heat-Lakers in 2010
-- Cavs-Warriors in 2015
-- Bulls-Lakers in 2011
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I guarantee this was already happening in scores and scores and scores of homes around the country -- for decades.
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Nearly five million viewers watch Caitlin Clark, Iowa, escape against West Virginia -- easily the largest audience on record prior to the Women's Final Four.
Viewership is up sixfold over last year, and other games are up big as well:
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Beyond everything else, Saturday's game will be the Kings' first primetime game on ABC since Christmas Day 2002 at the Lakers. That was ABC's first night of NBA coverage under the current TV deal.
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A re-air of Kobe's final game, which took place nearly four years ago, was Monday's most-watched sports program and averaged more than a million viewers.
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ABC will air Monday Night Football every week for the rest of the season due to the writers and actors strikes, per a report. (The games will still air on ESPN as well.)
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It took nearly 20 years and poaching a finished product from FOX, but I would say ESPN has finally nailed Monday Night Football. Final piece was Van Pelt. Kolber got a truly raw deal and deserved better for the work she put in, but Van Pelt is the perfect emcee for this.
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Ratings:
#NBAFinals
opens with its smallest audience ever.
Viewership -45% from last year's Game 1 and -58% from Cavs-Warriors Game 1 in 2018.
Behind Lakers-Clippers (Christmas) as top game of season and barely ahead of last year's Game 1 -- of the WCF:
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TBS' Brian Anderson finishes a long baseball season tonight and will take a well-earned one-day vacation before working Sixers-Bucks for TNT Thursday.
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One of the great moments in CBS Sports history, on TBS.
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ESPN at this point has to move whatever NHL game is set for May 14 -- would probably be a second round Game 5 -- to ESPN2 in favor of Clark's WNBA debut. Just from a ratings perspective, it's highly likely the WNBA game will draw a bigger number in that slot.
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NFL Draft opening round delivers second-largest audience ever, behind only last year. Comfortably tops last Sunday's Oscars:
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Super Bowl ratings declined in adults 18-49 for the ninth-straight year. Adults under 50 continue to make up a dwindling share of the audience -- 37% this year, compared to 43% four years ago and 51% in 2008.
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Sunday's LSU-Iowa women's national championship averaged 9.9M viewers (fast-nationals), easily a record.
-- Outdrew all of last year's NBA and MLB playoff games (**excluding the NBA Finals and World Series**)
-- Nearly matched January's Rose Bowl (10.2M)
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Iowa-UConn sets new record for women's college basketball with 14.2 million viewers, breaking days-old mark.
South Carolina-NC State leads in with 7.1M, the third-largest Women's Final Four audience on record behind Iowa-UConn and UVA-Stanford in '92:
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All of Bally Sports' NBA rights deals will end after this season under an agreement between the league and Diamond Sports:
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Warriors-Kings Game 7 was:
-- the most-watched first round playoff game since 1999 (SAC-UTA Game 5 on NBC)
-- the most-watched first or second round game since 2001 (TOR-PHI Game 7 on NBC)
-- the most-watched playoff game on broadcast TV since 2002 (LAL-SAC Game 7 on NBC).
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NBA Finals Game 6 easily the league's most-watched game since 2019
-- Fifth-most watched (non-football) sporting event since industry went dark in March of last year
-- Finals among least-watched on record, but tops 2003 and 2007 in addition to "bubble"
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Again excluding NFL and Olympics, 5 of the 10 most-viewed sporting events since 1998 have involved Cavaliers (1) or Ohio State football (4).
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New record audience for college volleyball as 1.7 million tune in to Texas-Nebraska national title game on ABC:
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Hubie Brown, seen here on 12/25/88, has called NBA games on broadcast television in five straight decades (1980s on CBS, 1990 on CBS, 2000s, 2010s and 2020s on ABC).
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ABC has what I presume would be a season-opening WNBA doubleheader scheduled for May 15. ESPN also has a game scheduled for May 16, leading into its NBA regular season finale.
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None of the other "Big 4" networks have as weak a commitment to live sports as does ABC, which is saying something given the tradition the network established under Roone Arledge. Blame ESPN, Disney or ABC entertainment, but ABC is by far the worst of the "Big 4" for live sports.
ABC viewers got about two seconds of the National Championship postgame show before it went to commercial break and then different programming.
The postgame show continued on ESPN, but there was no warning of that before ABC switched off. 🏀📺🏆
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Unusual for the NBA to provide something different. This will be just the 2nd time since 1998 that SA, LAL or DAL does not make NBA Finals.
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USA/JPN 2nd-most viewed soccer match ever in U.S., 5th-best non-NFL sports audience this year:
http://t.co/Exlz9sVrNN
http://t.co/G4PdODkxXT
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ESPN's most-watched college football games, excluding bowls and conference championships:
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Sunday Night Baseball returning this Sunday, per an ESPN advance schedule. ESPN has White Sox-Cubs at 8 PM ET.
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I understand the complaints about the 9:20 PM ET start for the men's national championship, but I don't understand the surprise.
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Oakland's upset of Kentucky is most-watched opening round NCAA Tournament game since Zion-era Duke against NDSU in 2019:
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Late afternoon on Sunday -- between 4-6 PM -- is probably the best TV window in sports. NFL knows it (4:25 PM window), CBS knows it (top tourney games always lead into "60 Minutes"). Only reason we have a 3 PM start today is that ABC refuses to risk preempting Sunday primetime.
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That college gymnastics number last Sunday (624K opposite NFL Wild Card games) is good enough to justify more meets on ABC. By comparison, ABC's WNBA Finals Game 1 had 456K vs. NFL back in October.
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Not really sure why MLB would want to have Opening Day coincide with the Sweet Sixteen. Even just starting one day earlier on a Wednesday would be better. This is not trivial competition.
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The things that used to fly before David Stern became commissioner:
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Tonight marks the earliest NFL season finale for Joe Buck and Troy Aikman in more than 20 years. The pair will get an additional playoff game starting next season as ESPN/ABC get into the Divisional Round rotation in the new TV deal.
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Excluding pro and college football, the Hawkeyes' win delivered the largest audience on ESPN's cable networks since last year's Celtics-Heat NBA ECF Game 7 (9.8M).
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These are the only things ESPN knows how to do: Pit stars against each other and make pointless historical comparisons that can never be proven. I suppose it qualifies as progress that they're using this tiresome playbook on women's hoops.
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SportsCenter opened with extended A block on deaths of Arnold Palmer, Jose Fernandez. Didn't time it, but had to be over 30 minutes ad-free.
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FOX will reportedly begin carrying college football games on Friday nights this fall, filling the vacancy left by WWE Smackdown:
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ESPN was way ahead of its time with this 2006 scorebug. I think this lasted one, maybe two seasons. Now this kind of bug is trendy (at least at FOX).
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Not defending FSU's handling of recent issues, or criticizing the scrutiny it has received. But this is low by NYT.
http://t.co/3RCHu4ZnKU
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ESPN scheduled to air WNBA Draft live in primetime April 15 (a Thursday). Looks like full, two-hour draft (8-10 PM ET).
Prior to last year, the draft typically aired for one hour on ESPN2 before dropping down to ESPNU for the conclusion.
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Over ten million for Wednesday afternoon Ravens-Steelers
-- Higher than all college football games this year
-- Higher than all NBA games this year
-- Higher than all-but-one baseball game this year (WS Game 6 had 12.7M)
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The "media shoved Colorado down our throats" stuff simply does not reflect reality. Any look at the viewership for the first three games shows that this was driven as much by organic viewer interest as media hype.
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Grizzlies-Warriors most-watched NBA game on final day of the regular season since 2016 (Warriors 73 on ESPN, Kobe's 60 on ESPN2).
ESPN's top game of the season outside of Christmas:
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ABC also scheduled to air an unprecedented WNBA Finals/NBA Finals doubleheader on Sunday, October 4. WNBA at 3 PM ET, NBA Finals at 7:30 (earliest NBA Finals game since 1998).
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Nearly 19 million for South Carolina-Iowa women's national championship, the largest basketball audience of any kind in five years.
Third-straight Iowa game to set the all-time record for women's college basketball viewership.
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Alert! Important information. Tony Kornheiser is anchoring PTI in-studio for the first time since 2020.
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ICYMI: Last two NASCAR races have been the lowest rated -- at any track -- since at least 2000. Excludes rainouts:
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Crazy to me that ABC goes completely dark with sports on Oscar Sunday. Maybe the numbers will prove me wrong but I can't see how a 1 PM ET Oscar pre-show would do better than literally any game ABC could put on in that window.
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Al Michaels with the line of the night: "People will say [football ratings are] diminished this year. Excuse me? Yeah, football went from number one to number one. Quite a drop."
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ABC's broadcast off the air at 5:30ish -- at least on my affiliate -- leading into paid programming. ABC's unwillingness to schedule these games later means the waste of a massive lead-in.
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Jeff Van Gundy on national TV predicting that there will be a pause to the season or a bubble, which seems patently insane -- and I'm not sure if that's going far enough -- given the availability of vaccines.
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In an era when *so many people* are offended every second of every day, I think you're going to see more and more companies stop caring who they tick off. Will be interesting.
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Warriors-Grizzlies:
-- most-watched semi Game 1 since 2011 (BOS-MIA)
-- most-watched NBA game outside of the Finals since Christmas '19 (LAC-LAL)
-- most-watched playoff game outside of the Finals since '19 WCF (GS-POR)
-- most-watched Grizzlies game ever
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Eagles-Chiefs is most-watched Monday Night Football regular season game in 27 years.
Also most-watched game of the current NFL season. Click below for more details:
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Charles Barkley complaining about the 10:30 PM ET start for MIN/DEN -- says that the NBA should have started at 1 PM.
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ICYMI: Duke/Wisconsin was the most-watched basketball game, college or pro, since Bulls/Jazz Game 6 in 1998:
http://t.co/mOJqhscgFh
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