The NFL continued its domination of the live sports charts last week, while controversy surrounding the Michigan college football team helped Fox draw more than nine million viewers to its coverage of the Wolverines’ Big Ten Conference battle against Penn State.
The November 11 Fox telecast, which saw Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh suspended by the Big Ten Conference before the start of the game over the team’s alleged sign-stealing, averaged 9.15 million viewers, the sixth college football game to top 9 million viewers this season, according to Nielsen numbers published by SportsMedia Watch.
Overall, Fox’s November 12 late afternoon NFL game window was the most-watched live sports event, averaging 21.73 million viewers, followed by CBS's early window of NFL games, which drew 16.26 million viewers.
Four NBA telecasts topped the non-football telecast list, led by ESPN’s November 10 Los Angeles Lakers-Phoenix Suns contest, which drew 1.92 million viewers. Falling outside the top five most-watched events was the November 11 National Women’s Soccer League final on CBS, which drew 817,000 viewers, down was down from last year’s inaugural primetime airing of the championship game, which drew 915,000 viewers, according to SportsBusiness Journal.
| Date | Event | Network | Viewership |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 12 | NFL on Fox (late window) | Fox | 21.73 million |
| November 12 | NFL on CBS (early window) | CBS | 16.26 million |
| November 12 | Sunday Night Football | NBC | 15.64 million |
| November 12 | NFL on Fox (early window) | Fox | 12.51 million |
| November 9 | Thursday Night Football | Prime Video | 9.56 million |
| Date | Event | Network | Viewership |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 10 | NBA: Lakers-Suns | ESPN | 1.92 million |
| November 8 | NBA: Warriors-Nuggets | ESPN | 1.85 million |
| November 8 | NBA: Spurs-Knicks | ESPN | 1.65 million |
| November 10 | NBA: Nets-Celtics | ESPN | 1.40 million |
| November 10 | College Basketball: Arizona-Duke | ESPN2 | 1.19 million |
