Final Ratings

Final Ratings: SEC, Pac-12 Title Games Up, Big Ten, ACC Down; MLS Cup Off From '11

By Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor

Published December 7, 2012

CBS’ Alabama-Georgia SEC Championship led all conference championship games last weekend with a 9.8 rating and 16.2 million viewers, up 34% and 35%, respectively, from a 7.3 rating and 12.0 million viewers for the LSU-Georgia matchup last year. Meanwhile, Fox finished with a 3.0 rating and 4.9 million viewers for the Stanford-UCLA Pac-12 Championship on Friday night, up 3% and 9%, respectively, from a 2.9 rating and 4.5 million viewers for the inaugural game last year, which featured Oregon-UCLA. Fox also earned a 2.9 rating and 5.1 million viewers for the Wisconsin-Nebraska Big Ten Championship, down 37% and 34%, respectively, from a 4.6 and 7.8 million viewers for last year's inaugural Big Ten title game, which featured Wisconsin against Michigan State. Both the Big Ten and Pac-12 title games were beat out by ABC’s Texas-Kansas State matchup on Saturday night, which drew a 3.3 rating and 5.2 million viewers. ESPN finished with a 1.2 rating and 2.0 million viewers for the Florida State-Georgia Tech ACC Championship, down 25% and 29%, respectively, from a 1.6 rating and 2.8 million viewers for the Clemson-Virginia Tech game last year.

GALAXY QUEST: The Galaxy-Dynamo MLS Cup averaged a 0.5 rating and 797,000 viewers last Saturday afternoon, down from a 0.6 rating and 1.039 million viewers for the same matchup last year, which aired late on a Sunday night. The league's finale had aired on a Sunday night since moving from ABC to ESPN in '09. Meanwhile, Telefutura averaged 485,000 viewers for the Spanish-language telecast of the game, up 58% from last year’s telecast on Galavision. The combined audience was down 5% from last year.

MLS CUP AUDIENCE SINCE MOVING TO CABLE TV
YEAR	MATCHUP	NET	RATING	VIEWERS (000)
'12	Galaxy-Dynamo	ESPN	0.5	797
'11	Galaxy-Dynamo	ESPN	0.6	1,039
'10	Rapids-FC Dallas	ESPN	0.4	748
'09	Real Salt Lake-Galaxy	ESPN	0.7	1,141

EARLY RETURNS: The ACC-Big Ten Challenge averaged 1.14 million viewers for eight men's basketball games across ESPN/ESPN2 this year, down 13% from last year, but up 10% from ’10 (all games on ESPNU excluded). The North Carolina-Indiana matchup on Nov. 27 was the most-viewed game, averaging a 1.8 rating and 2.7 million viewers. Meanwhile, the SEC-Big East Challenge averaged 583,000 viewers for six games across ESPN/ESPN2 this year (ESPNU excluded). That figure is down from 967,000 viewers last year, when the event had four games on ESPN, compared to only two this year.

NOTES: ESPN's Giants-Redskins “MNF” telecast drew a 10.2 rating and 16.2 million viewers, marking the second-best viewership for a “MNF” telecast this season and third-best rating. The top “MNF” audience in ’12 remains the Oct. 1 Bears-Cowboys telecast, which drew a 10.5 rating and 16.6 million viewers….Showtime averaged 1.047 million viewers for the Miguel Cotto-Austin Trout boxing match last Saturday night from 9:00-11:44pm ET. The telecast peaked from 10:37-11:30pm for the main fight with 1.365 million viewers….MSG Network is averaging a 3.22 local rating in N.Y. for Knicks games through 13 telecasts, up 68% compared to the same period last year (1.92 rating). The Knicks' postgame show rating is also up 105%.

The charts below list final Nielsen ratings from recent sports telecasts. Figures for select telecasts on ABC were unavailable at presstime.

TELECAST	DATE	NET	TIME (ET)	RAT.	VIEWERS (000)
"NFL on CBS": Steelers-Ravens (93%)	12/2	CBS	4:15-7:30pm	13.9	23,000
"NFL on Fox": (single)	12/2	Fox	1:00-4:05pm	12.6	20,900
"Sunday Night Football": Eagles-Cowboys	12/2	NBC	8:31-11:28pm	12.4	20,416
SEC Championship: Alabama-Georgia	12/1	CBS	4:00-8:00pm	9.8	16,200
"NFL on CBS": (regional)	12/2	CBS	1:00-4:15pm	7.8	n/a
"Football Night in America"	12/2	NBC	7:30-8:15pm	5.2	8,495
NCAA Football: Texas-Kansas State	12/1	ABC	8:07-11:34pm	3.3	5,219
Big Ten Championship: Nebraska-Wisconsin	12/1	Fox	8:20-11:51pm	2.9	5,106
Pac-12 Championship: Stanford-UCLA	11/30	Fox	8:21-11:43pm	3.0	4,872
"Fox NFL Sunday"	12/2	Fox	12:00-1:00pm	3.2	4,800
"College Football Today"	12/1	CBS	3:30-4:00pm	2.6	n/a
"The NFL Today"	12/2	CBS	12:00-1:00pm	2.4	n/a
NCAA Basketball: Baylor-Kentucky	12/1	CBS	12:30-3:00pm	1.1	n/a
"CFB Championship Preview"	12/1	CBS	3:00-3:30pm	1.1	n/a
Golf: World Challenge: Third Round	12/1	NBC	3:00-6:00pm	0.9	n/a
Golf: World Challenge: Final Round	12/2	NBC	3:00-6:00pm	0.9	n/a
Skiing: Birds of Prey	12/2	NBC	1:00-2:00pm	0.4	n/a
Swimming: Winter Nat'l Championships	12/2	NBC	2:00-3:00pm	0.4	n/a
"Global Golf"	12/1	NBC	2:30-3:00pm	0.2	n/a
TELECAST	DATE	NET	TIME (ET)	RAT.	VIEWERS (000)
"Monday Night Football': Panthers-Eagles	11/26	ESPN	8:30-11:36pm	7.0	10,779
"Thursday Night Football": Saints-Falcons	11/29	NFLN	8:30-11:39pm	4.4	7,066
"Thursday Night Football Pre-Kick"	11/29	NFLN	8:00-8:30pm	2.2	3,501
NCAA Football: Oklahoma-TCU	12/1	ESPN	12:01-3:24pm	2.3	3,277
NCAA Basketball: North Carolina-Indiana	11/27	ESPN	9:32-11:29pm	1.8	2,658
NCAA Basketball: Ohio State-Duke	11/28	ESPN	9:31-11:47pm	1.5	2,279
"Monday Night Countdown"	11/26	ESPN	6:30-8:30pm	1.6	2,272
"Sunday NFL Countdown"	12/2	ESPN	10:00am-1:00pm	1.5	2,071
ACC Championship: Florida State-Georgia Tech	12/1	ESPN	7:55-11:14pm	1.2	1,966
NBA: Spurs-Heat	11/29	TNT	8:16-10:46pm	1.3	1,964