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CLEVELAND — Women’s college basketball continues to grab the nation’s attention at an unprecedented rate, and the metrics prove it. The Final Four game between Iowa and Connecticut on Friday was the most-watched basketball game ever aired on ESPN; an average of 14.2 million viewers tuned in, and the broadcast peaked at 17 million viewers. Iowa defeated U-Conn., 71-69, to advance to its second consecutive national championship game with star guard Caitlin Clark leading the way. The previous record for an ESPN basketball broadcast was 13.51 million viewers for Game 7 of the 2018 NBA Eastern Conference finals between the...

Monday night’s women’s basketball game between Iowa and LSU was the most watched women’s basketball game ever.Monday night's rematch between @IowaWBB & @LSUwbkb scores as the MOST-WATCHED WOMEN'S COLLEGE BASKETBALL GAME ON RECORD12.3M viewers Most-watched college basketball game EVER on ESPN platformsMore details to come…#NCAAWBB | #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/55FU8C1NwD— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) April 2, 2024How big of a night was it?At 12.3 million viewers, last night's Iowa-LSU game had more viewers than:• Any women's CBB game ever • The 2023 NBA Finals • The 2023 World Series • The 2023 Orange Bowl • The 2023 Big Ten Championship • The 2023...

To judge by the passions and interests of the Twitterati and those who dominate the cultural conversation in the United States, you would think the most important, most beloved, most addictive show on television is HBO’s “Succession.” Its third-season premiere in October was watched by 1.8 million people — an all-time high for the show (so says The Hollywood Reporter) that was “driven largely by digital platforms and HBO Max in particular.” If you learned about America’s cultural habits only from the Twitterati, you would never know that the most important, most beloved and most addictive show on television —...

Winners notwithstanding, the obvious shortcomings of the 78th annual Golden Globes on-screen last night were reflected in the ratings for the NBC broadcast ceremony today. Though the Comcast-owned network doesn’t plan to release final numbers from Nielsen until tomorrow, semi-adjusted fast nationals reveal the Tina Fey and Amy Poehler bicoastal hosted show took a hit from last year. A big hit. And we don’t just mean the worthy whack the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has been taking from some of Tinseltown’s heaviest hitters over the 87-member group’s total lack of Black members. Coming in with a 1.2 rating among adults...

Sportswear giant Under Armour is dumping its licensing contracts with the National Football League, according to Front Office Sports. The company axed its deal for NFL players to wear its products on the field, making the coming 2021 season the first in years that Under Armour logos will not appear on the field for years, according to a recent issue of the Front Office Sports email newsletter. Under Amour’s move comes on the heels of the company’s exit from several other high-profile sports leagues, as well. Under Armour asked to end its $85 million deal with the University of California...

The 2020 American Music Awards delivered a big decline in rating and total viewership from last year, falling to record lows in both measurements. Last night’s awards show, which was hosted by “Empire” star Taraji P. Henson and saw Taylor Swift, The Weeknd and Dan + Shay emerge as the big winners, averaged a 0.9 rating among adults 18-49 and around 3.8 million total viewers. That represents a 50% rating decline and a 43% loss in total viewership. For comparison, last years AMAs were down only 4% on the year prior in the ratings column, and in fact gained around...

In the latest TV ratings, Fox’s coverage of the World Series opener between the Dodgers and Rays averaged 7.2 million total viewers and a Tuesday-topping 1.8 demo rating — though down sharply from the preliminary numbers (11.6 mil/2.9) for last year’s Nationals/Astros Game 1. Check back later for the final tally! NBC | The Voice (7.5 mil/1.0) was down a tick from Monday’s premiere, but teed up Transplant for Stateside highs of 4.3 mil/0.6. ABC | The Bachelorette (4.1 mil.1.1) slipped about 20 percent from last week. Leading out of that, a Supermarket Sweeeeeeep! encore did 1.8 mil and a...

NFL ratings among Republican voters have been down through the first three games of the 2020 season, according to a report from Comscore ratings firm, ABC News reported. The company categorized ratings by political affiliation, discovering that ratings in Republican households dropped 11, 17 and 8 percent across the first three games respectively, according to ABC News. "These significant viewership changes reinforce the importance of having advanced audience information because media buyers and sellers have to adapt quickly when cultural forces reshape consumer behavior," Comscore Chief Revenue Officer Carol Hinnant said in a news release. NFL viewership has also seen...

Here’s what is indisputable: ratings for the NFL are down, in some cases to an ugly degree. Thursday Night Football (NFL Network) was down an astounding 70 percent from last year, but that comes with a huge caveat: last year’s game aired on NFL Network and Fox. Broadcast TV always jacks up ratings, and it’ll do the same thing when TNF returns to Fox later this season. Still: only 5.41 million watched the Denver Broncos and the New York Jets play last Thursday. Sunday Night Football (NBC) took a steep dive, falling 37 percent in viewership from last year. The...

Much has been made of the “enthusiasm gap” between Trump and Biden supporters. The short story is that fewer than half of Biden supporters are “very enthusiastic” about supporting him compared to 65 percent of Trump supporters, who identify as “very enthusiastic.” This makes a difference on Election Day — usually. But with mail-in voting, you don’t have to motivate yourself to go out in the cold and stand in line at the polling place to cast your ballot. The most strenuous activity you’ll see in mail-in voting will be licking the stamp to post the ballot.Nevertheless, there are other...

Within the Senate chamber, lawmakers were doing their best to endure the long hours of the Trump impeachment trial’s first two days, bringing crossword puzzles, falling asleep, and flaunting the no-electronics rule by communicating on smartwatches. At home, Americans haven’t sought these distractions, because the public is just not tuning in. According to TV ratings for the first two days of the trial, the six news networks covering Trump’s impeachment averaged a little over 11 million viewers combined, with Fox News leading the pack with some 2,654,000 on their channel from 12:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Viewership dropped by about...

Broadcast-TV ratings may again be on the decline — as they have been since… well, for a while! — but that does not mean ABC, CBS et al are about to close up shop and leave your Zenith with nothing but test patterns. And here is the important reason why. Money. “But,” you argue, “ratings are down! You typed it right up above! I see it with my own eyes!” And the short retort to that is: Remember what your high school economics teacher told you about supply and demand…. The longer answer, for those interested enough to stick around:...

It's a widely accepted piece of TV ratings dogma that same-day numbers represent a starting point, not the complete picture for a given show. What's also true, however, is that in 2018-19, the starting point for nearly every returning broadcast series retreated from the previous season. In fact, only 10 percent (10 of 102) of veteran series increased or held steady with their same-day adults 18-49 rating from the 2017-18 season. The Hollywood Reporter's comparison includes same-day ratings for all original episodes of series that aired more than one episode in the 2018-19 season, including those coded as specials. Only...

ABC’s Roseanne-without-Roseanne spin-off The Conners couldn’t come anywhere close to the blockbuster premiere rating of its predecessor, yet still had a strong number that led Tuesday night in the ratings. The debut airing delivered 10.5 million viewers and a 2.3 rating among adults 18-49. That’s down 55 percent from the premiere of Roseanne last spring, but was very much on par with Roseanne‘s finale and even managed to edge out NBC’s This Is Us for the night. When Roseanne returned on ABC earlier this year, the first episode delivered a staggering 18.2 million viewers and a 5.1 rating among adults...

The American Music Awards hit a new all-time low in the Nielsen ratings on Tuesday night. ABC aired only the AMAs on Tuesday, with the three hour show drawing a 1.8 rating in adults 18-49 and 6.5 million viewers. That is down 25% in the key demo and approximately 29% in total viewers compared to the 2017 broadcast, which drew a 2.4 rating and 9.2 million viewers. The show also moved from Sunday in November for the first time in more than a decade this year. More to come…

CNN's Chris Coumo dives into lowest TV viewer ratings while showing off the worst of losers, "The Rat Man" , Michael Cohen. Why? No one cares!!!

It’s become a major trend, when tax season arrives, cable and satellite subscriber numbers tank according to Nielsen estimates. I don’t know if that’s because come spring tax season everyone looks at their yearly budgets and many people, in an effort to save money, decide they don’t need cable and satellite subscriptions any longer, or whether the end of the NFL, college football, and college basketball causes many sports fans to tune out for the summer. But regardless of the reason cord cutting in the spring has become an annual trend And the start of this spring was brutal for...

Bill Maher on Friday cut New Rules short to share an open letter to “dear friend” Roseanne Barr. The seven-minute segment found the Real Time host addressing the success of the Roseanne revival, while also questioning both Barr and her character’s controversial support of President Trump. “It’s 2018 and we have to talk about Trump,” Maher said. “Like it or not, you’re now the face of the Trump supporter, because you really do speak for a certain kind of American who knows they’re being screwed by someone, they just don’t know who. But here’s what you’re missing about Trump: When...

Let's give the show even more ratings by watching a repeat of the first episode, which aired on March 27th, followed by 3 more episodes. MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

ABC’s Roseanne revival settled in last night with a slice-of-life episode focused on parenting after last week’s headline-grabbing premiere tackled President Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and the election. The ratings took the inevitable dip but remained impressive — 15.1 million viewers and a 3.9 rating among adults 18-49 in the fast nationals at 8 PM last night. Vs. the 8-8:30 PM part of the double premiere episode last week (17.7 million, 4.9/21), Roseanne retained 84% of the audience and 80% of the adults 18-49 rating. It was once again the top program of the night by a mile in both...