Army-Navy Game Delivers 7 Million Viewers; Lakers-Pacers NBA In-Season Tourney Final Draws Nearly 5 Million: The Week in Sports Ratings (Dec. 4-10)

By R. Thomas Umstead
published

But NFL keeps racking up TV’s biggest sports audiences

Bryson Daily #13 of the Army Black Knights runs for a short gain in the first quarter against the Navy Midshipmen at Gillette Stadium on December 9, 2023
Bryson Daily of Army runs for a short gain in the first quarter against Navy at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass. (Image credit: Getty Images)

While NFL games continued to tackle the biggest audiences for live TV sports events last week, the NBA In-Season Tournament also scored with viewers.

NFL games represented the top five most-watched events for the week of December 4-10, led by CBS’s December 10 slate of late afternoon games which averaged 26.04 million viewers, according to Nielsen numbers published by SportsMedia Watch. 

NBC’s Philadelphia Eagles-Dallas Cowboys Sunday Night Football telecast finished second for the week with 24.17 million viewers, followed by Fox’s early window of Sunday NFL games, which drew 17.02 million viewers. 

CBS’s December 9 Army-Navy game was the most watched college football game of the week, drawing 7.18 million viewers, an increase of 4% from last year’s contest. 

The NBA's inaugural In-Season Tournament secured the top five spots on the non-football ratings chart, led by the December 9 Los Angeles Lakers-Indiana Pacers final on ABC, which drew 4.14 million viewers. Overall, the game drew the biggest audience for a non-Christmas regular season game since February 2018, according to SportsMedia Watch.

 

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Top-Rated Live Sports Events, Dec. 4-10
Date EventNetworkViewership
December 10 NFL on CBS (late window) CBS 26.04 million
December 10 NBC Sunday Night Football NBC24.17 million
December 10 NFL on Fox (early window) Fox 17.02 million
December 10 NFL on CBS (early window) CBS 15.02 million
December 7 Thursday Night Football Prime Video 10.70 million
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Top-Rated Non-Football Events, Dec. 4-10
Date Event NetworkViewership
December 9NBA In-Season Tournament Championship ABC4.14 million
Decdmber 5NBA In-Season Tournament QuarterfinalTNT1.97 million
December 7NBA In-Season SemifinalTNT1.74 million
December 5NBA In-Season Quarterfinal TNT1.74 million
December 7NBA In-Season Semifinal ESPN1.60 million
R. Thomas Umstead
R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.