Thursday Night Football bounced back from last week’s low with another double-digit increase.
The latest edition of NFL Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video (Saints-Rams) averaged a 4.8 rating and 10.20 million viewers, the top television program of the day and up 22% in ratings and 23% in viewership from Jaguars-Jets last year (3.9, 8.26M). TNF has now scored a double-digit increase in viewership 13 times in 14 weeks this season, the lone exception coming last week. More details on TNF will be posted later.
Outside of the NFL, the day’s top sporting event was the Kentucky-Louisville men’s basketball game on ESPN. The Wildcats’ win averaged 1.11 million viewers, up from last year’s matchup of the rivals — which aired on CBS but faced the Sugar Bowl (1.06M).
Airing immediately following the game, South Florida’s 45-0 rout of Syracuse in college football’s Boca Raton Bowl averaged 1.05 million — down 29% from Toledo-Liberty last year (1.47M).
Further down the dial, NBA TV averaged 450,000 viewers for a Lakers-Timberwolves NBA regular season game — up 35% from Bucks-Grizzlies in the comparable window last year (333K). The G-League Winter Showcase topped out at 50,000 for Santa Cruz-Westchester on ESPN2.
Returning to the college game, North Alabama-Indiana scored 215,000 on BTN, preceded by Jacksonville-Purdue at 178,000. In the Diamond Head Classic, Portland-Hawaii averaged 80,000 and Georgia Tech-UMass 79,000 on ESPN2, while Nevada-Temple drew 55,000 and TCU-Old Dominion just 42,000 on ESPNU.
In a high school basketball doubleheader on ESPNU, Archbishop Mitty-Long Island Lutheran had 27,000 and Crestwood Prep-Bishop McNamara 19,000.
Rounding out the live sports slate, a Brighton-Crystal Palace English Premier League match averaged 269,000 on USA Network. A friendly between Club America of Liga MX and FC Barcelona of La Liga averaged 225,000 on TUDN, while a traditional La Liga matchup of Alaves and Real Madrid scored 189,000 on ESPN Deportes. Finally, Al-Hilal-Abha in the Saudi Pro League averaged a rare live sports bagel with 0 recorded viewers on FS2.
Thursday, December 21 sports ratings
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Original chart below:
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