TV Ratings on ESPN

[Natty Boh Army]

I haven’t seen this info posted yet, so I figured I would share. I realize this topic deviates a little from the usual banter; however, I thought it to be relevant.

The ratings for the tournament are in- the finals drew 703,000 viewers on ESPN.

The good news is that this is a solid number for college wrestling, it represents a huge increase over last year, and that it reverses an alarming trend of declining viewership over the last few tournaments. In addition, these finals had some great moments by any objective measurement, and while we only had a few matches that could qualify as barnburners, we also didn’t have any that lasted 20+ minutes. In other words, this large number of viewers was exposed to a quality product.

The bad news, of course, is that wrestling is (and will probably always be) a niche sport, and the ~700K viewers seem to be fairly close to the ceiling for this event.

For comparisons sake, the finals drew more viewers than:

• Banana Ball (?) (197K)
• College basketball slam dunk and 3-point championship (572K)
• College softball regionals (701K)
• Cornhole (188K)
• Crossfit Games (269K)
• F1 Practice (599K)
• Hot Dog Eating Contest (491K)
• The Boston Marathon (369K)
• MLB Draft (670K)
• NCAA Lacrosse Finals (437K)
• Boys Flag Football Championship (212K)
• NHL Draft (502K)
• Pickleball (596K)

And the finals drew less viewers than:

• ACC Basketball Finals (3,066K)
• College Baseball Super Regionals (1,493K)
• College Softball World Series (2,036K)
• Heisman Trophy Presentation (2,521K)
• Little League World Series (1,228K)
• NBA Draft Lottery (3,240K)
• Wimbledon Finals (2,212K)
• WNBA Draft (2,446K)

 

https://ustvdb.com/networks/espn/shows/

https://ustvdb.com/networks/espn/shows/college-wrestling/

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/sports-ratings-tracker/

 

[okokzach]

IIRC the viewership peaked at 806,000 during Gable-Hendrickson 

[Mr. PeanutButter]

1.2 million people watched the Little League world series? Nearly 2.5 mill watched the WNBA draft? Jeezus diabetus this world sucks 

[ionel]

3 minutes ago, Mr. PeanutButter said:

1.2 million people watched the Little League world series? Nearly 2.5 mill watched the WNBA draft? Jeezus diabetus this world sucks 

Well it is international.  But i have to question what did they watch, the final US, the international final, the entire thing?  It's a pretty long event.

Likewise on say pickleball.  Well what pickleball there are a lot of events and streams just about every week?

[okokzach]

7 minutes ago, Mr. PeanutButter said:

1.2 million people watched the Little League world series? Nearly 2.5 mill watched the WNBA draft? Jeezus diabetus this world sucks 

Those don't bother me at all. LLWS is super fun and international and doesn't compete with anything like March Madness. It's grown over a long period of time. The WNBA draft was lightning in a bottle with Clark. 

What I want to know is who in the hell is watching lacrosse and why

[billyhoyle]

This is incredible news. 

[Natty Boh Army]

20 minutes ago, ionel said:

Well it is international.  But i have to question what did they watch, the final US, the international final, the entire thing?  It's a pretty long event.

Likewise on say pickleball.  Well what pickleball there are a lot of events and streams just about every week?

https://ustvdb.com/networks/espn/shows/pickleball/ 

That viewership number was for "PickleBall Slam 2". Your guess is as good as mine as to what that is.

https://ustvdb.com/networks/espn/shows/little-league-world-series/

It looks like most/all Little League games draw a good number of viewers- for more than I expected. 

 

[ionel]

Just now, Natty Boh Army said:

 

That viewership number was for "PickleBall Slam 2". Your guess is as good as mine as to what that is.

 

I watched it so have a pretty good guess.  

[boathead]

1.2 million people watched the Little League world series? Nearly 2.5 mill watched the WNBA draft? Jeezus diabetus this world sucks 

Attribute the draft to Ms. Clark. She was and will remain must watch TV.

We did beat hot dog eating so we have that.

Sent from my F92 E 5G using Tapatalk

[Rassling2]

1 hour ago, Natty Boh Army said:

I haven’t seen this info posted yet, so I figured I would share. I realize this topic deviates a little from the usual banter; however, I thought it to be relevant.

The ratings for the tournament are in- the finals drew 703,000 viewers on ESPN.

The good news is that this is a solid number for college wrestling, it represents a huge increase over last year, and that it reverses an alarming trend of declining viewership over the last few tournaments. In addition, these finals had some great moments by any objective measurement, and while we only had a few matches that could qualify as barnburners, we also didn’t have any that lasted 20+ minutes. In other words, this large number of viewers was exposed to a quality product.

The bad news, of course, is that wrestling is (and will probably always be) a niche sport, and the ~700K viewers seem to be fairly close to the ceiling for this event.

For comparisons sake, the finals drew more viewers than:

• Banana Ball (?) (197K)
• College basketball slam dunk and 3-point championship (572K)
• College softball regionals (701K)
• Cornhole (188K)
• Crossfit Games (269K)
• F1 Practice (599K)
• Hot Dog Eating Contest (491K)
• The Boston Marathon (369K)
• MLB Draft (670K)
• NCAA Lacrosse Finals (437K)
• Boys Flag Football Championship (212K)
• NHL Draft (502K)
• Pickleball (596K)

And the finals drew less viewers than:

• ACC Basketball Finals (3,066K)
• College Baseball Super Regionals (1,493K)
• College Softball World Series (2,036K)
• Heisman Trophy Presentation (2,521K)
• Little League World Series (1,228K)
• NBA Draft Lottery (3,240K)
• Wimbledon Finals (2,212K)
• WNBA Draft (2,446K)

 

https://ustvdb.com/networks/espn/shows/

https://ustvdb.com/networks/espn/shows/college-wrestling/

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/sports-ratings-tracker/

 

I still think it’s great news and I’m encouraged rather than discouraged. Thanks for sharing Natty!

[CHROMEBIRD]

Thanks for sharing this. A 70%+ bump from last year is great, especially when ESPN has started to promote WBB harder since the Caitlin Clark hype (and because they have broadcast rights).

Maybe not surprising, but the 18-49 and 25-54 y/o segments are just about a third of the overall (P2+) viewership. If the demo of this board is any indication, I am guessing the numbers skew older.

[CHROMEBIRD]

Also, this year's tournament was the third highest NCAA wrestling championship finals ratings over the last 15 years. The broadcasts with the highest ratings are the 2013 (highest) and 2017 (2nd highest) finals.

2013 was the year Dake bumped up to challenge Taylor. Anyone know what drew viewership in 2017? That was the year Zain - Nolf - Cenzo - Hall - Nickal all won titles, but I'm not sure if that people tuned-in for that. Was because of Snyder winning the Olympics? 

[jackwebster]

2 hours ago, Natty Boh Army said:

Banana Ball (?) (197K)

This is one of those internet mysteries that I will never search. I'm glad to know that such a thing exists and that it will always remain an uncharted space on the map of my brain. Legends will grow about its heroes, contests, and controversies. In time, the myth will become tradition, and tradition will become fact. 

[HawkAlum2002]

6 hours ago, jackwebster said:

This is one of those internet mysteries that I will never search. I'm glad to know that such a thing exists and that it will always remain an uncharted space on the map of my brain. Legends will grow about its heroes, contests, and controversies. In time, the myth will become tradition, and tradition will become fact. 

Probably a Savannah Bananas game, a baseball version of the Globetrotters.  They've become a huge deal the past couple years, breaking attendance records all over the place.