Chiefs’ matchup vs. Bengals was most-watched September game since 1998

The #Chiefs’ Week 2 matchup against the #Bengals had the highest viewership of any September game since 1998.

The Kansas City Chiefs continue to break records on and off the field. According to CBS Sports, Sunday’s matchup between the Kansas City and the Cincinnati Bengals was the most-watched game to take place in September since 1998, with an average of 27.8 million viewers tuning in.

Viewership records are nothing new to the Chiefs. Last week’s home opener set the record as the most-watched NFL kickoff game since the league began televising games in 1939. Before that, Super Bowl LVIII, which featured the Kansas City and the San Francisco 49ers, was the most-watched Super Bowl game of all time.

Take a look at the other incredible records the game set in a post by Ari Meirov on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/MySportsUpdate/status/1836045299229331574

The Chiefs have become increasingly popular since the arrival of quarterback Patrick Mahomes in 2017, who has taken on the role of the face of the NFL.

As Kansas City becomes one of the most popular teams in the NFL with the help of its newly-acquired Swiftie fanbase, it seems like it will only be a matter of time until almost every Chiefs game sets a television record.

Record audience tuned in to watch Micah Potter play for USA Basketball

Record audience tuned in to watch Micah Potter play for USA Basketball

A record audience of 1.162 million viewers tuned in to watch former Wisconsin Badger Micah Potter see game action for USA Basketball earlier this week.

Maybe the entire audience didn’t tune in to see Potter specifically, but instead to watch USA Basketball’s Olympic exhibition match against Canada. Then Potter saw game action to close the contest and even hit a corner three-pointer.

Related: Big Ten basketball teams ranked by returning production entering 2024-25 season

The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand shared the view count on Thursday afternoon. He also noted that it is the most-watched basketball game in Fox Sports 1 history. The total is more than any college basketball broadcast on the network — which are mostly Big Ten and Big East contests.

USA Basketball defeated Canada 86-72 in the Olympic warm-up on Wednesday. Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards led the scoring with 13 points, while Steph Curry, Jrue Holiday and Anthony Davis added 12, 11 and 10 points respectively.

Potter joined the scoring with a late three-pointer. He was 1/2 from the field during the contest in only two minutes of action.

Obviously, the record viewership number is mostly thanks to the starpower of LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Devin Booker, Joel Embiid and others. It is not to watch former Badgers Potter and Nigel Hayes-Davis see action in garbage time.

Unsurprisingly, most fans had no idea who Potter was when he checked in. But at least there was a substantial audience to watch his on-court moment.

Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes and opinion.

Notre Dame football: Hilarious TV viewership tweet

Yeah, everyone was tuned in to see THEM!

I have combined with Wayne Gretzky to score 894 career goals in the NHL.

I have combined with Emmitt Smith to rush for 18,355 yards in an NFL uniform.

And along with LeBron James, I have combined to score 38,652 points in NBA games.

I say that to point out the social media post that Duke football put out when viewership numbers for last weekend’s thrilling contest with Notre Dame were released.  Obviously a primetime game going down to the wire was going to attract eye balls and it did exactly that.

Take a look at the numbers below that are included in the Duke tweet.

Whatever makes you feel better, I guess.

2024 Rose Bowl between Alabama and Michigan shatters TV viewership record

2024 CFP Rose Bowl semi-final shatters viewership records as Alabama loses in OT

Despite a very unfortunate loss to the Michigan Wolverines in the Rose Bowl, we must appreciate what an incredible run Nick Saban and the Tide had this year. With two new coordinators and replacing the No. 1 overall pick from the 2023 NFL Draft, winning a national championship was never going to be an easy task. However, the fact of the matter is the team could have quit after ugly Week 2 and 3 performances against Texas and USF, but the team never gave up and just continued to fight all year long.

Alabama battled back from adversity in the early parts of the season, gave us an all-time moment against Auburn, knocked off Georgia to prevent a three-peat and became champions of the SEC again – all things considered, that’s a successful season. It is obviously frustrating that the Tide lost, but they more than proved they deserved a spot in the Playoffs. The offense had the ball up four with a chance to make it a two score game in the fourth quarter and the defense had Michigan in a late 4th and 2 and neither sides of the ball were able to put the game away.

With Alabama and Michigan being the two winningest programs’ in college football history and the Rose Bowl being the oldest and most historic site, it is no surprise to see how popular the semi-final game was. The Rose Bowl averaged 27.2 million viewers which makes it the most-viewed non-NFL sporting event since 2018. Whether you love or hate the Tide, people tune in to watch them, and with the country rejoicing after every Alabama loss, it is still clear who the premier program in the sport is.

Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Sam Murphy on Twitter @SamMurphy02.

Chiefs’ Week 16 loss to Raiders drew more than 29-million viewers

It seems the whole country was tuned in to watch the Chiefs’ Week 16 loss to the Raiders on Christmas day.

It seems that the whole country watched the Kansas City Chiefs lose to the Las Vegas Raiders on Christmas day, and after viewership metrics for the matchup were announced this week, the sheer size of the holiday audience was astounding.

According to the CBS Sports PR Twitter account, more than 29 million viewers tuned in to watch Kansas City collapse against Las Vegas at Arrowhead Stadium in Week 16.

This constituted the largest audience for a Christmas game since 1989, a factoid that should be of particular note to the Swiftie community.

At one point during the game, more than 37 million viewers were watching the Chiefs get manhandled by the Raiders, which may account for the utter shellacking that Kansas City took on social media after the game.

While one game rarely comes to define a team’s season, the Chiefs’ loss to Las Vegas may prove to be the moment that many fans across the country remember when looking back at Kansas City’s Super Bowl LVII defense campaign, even if only because it was so widely watched.

America did not have much interest in Wisconsin vs Northwestern last Saturday

America did not have much interest in Wisconsin vs Northwestern last Saturday

Wisconsin fell 24-10 to Northwestern on Saturday to continue what has been a forgettable football season.

And by forgettable, I mean it would be nice to forget. In reality, this season will either spark an incredible comeback by Luke Fickell and his staff, or signal the end of an era that never really got off the ground. It will be a hard one to forget completely.

But the Badgers’ loss to Northwestern could file as one of those games we never look back upon. Wisconsin was dominated in all facets by a team that was projected to win 2-3 games this season.

It was also a game America didn’t show much interest in, understandably. Action Network’s Brett McMurphy posted the latest viewership numbers of the games this weekend and Wisconsin vs Northwestern fell at No. 19 with 612,000 viewers.

The game fell below Iowa vs Rutgers, the game with the lowest total in college football history (and still went under).

Seahawks vs. Patriots 2015 Super Bowl still most-viewed TV show ever

Despite impressive viewership numbers for Super Bowl LVII, the SB XLIX between the Seahawks and Patriots still holds the all-time record.

Super Bowl LVII pitting the Kansas City Chiefs against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday was definitely a fun watch to end the season but the big game didn’t draw enough viewership to break the all-time record.

According to FOXSports, relying on numbers from Nielsen Media Research Fast National data and Adobe Analytics, the matchup garnered the best Super Bowl audience in six years and ranks as the most-watched Super Bowl since 2017 and the third-most watched television show ever with 113M average viewers.

While those numbers are impressive, they don’t hold a candle to the 2015 Super Bowl featuring the Seahawks and Patriots on NBC, which drew the biggest numbers ever recorded for a TV show at 114,442,000 viewers. The No. 2 slot also features New England – Super Bowl 51 in 2017.

The final Nielsen data from Sunday is expected to be released on Tuesday.

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Jaguars vs. Chiefs drew massive 34.1 million viewing audience

NBC says the Jaguars’ playoff game against the Chiefs was a big ratings success.

The Jacksonville Jaguars’ 27-20 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs was a big hit among television audiences, according to NBC.

The network said Monday that an average of 34.1 million people tuned in for the game, more than any Saturday afternoon Divisional Game in eight years. It was just a hair behind the 34.1 million total that tuned in for a 2015 game between the New England Patriots and Baltimore Ravens.

“What an exciting way to cap our coverage of the 2022 NFL season, with star quarterbacks in a one-score game for a berth in the AFC Championship Game,” NBC Sports chairman Pete Bevacqua said in a press release. “We thank our best-in-class team for their creative effort and tireless work throughout the season, and look forward to watching the culmination of an exciting postseason.”

The game was also the most streamed game on Peacock with the exception of Super Bowls.

The Jaguars haven’t played a primetime game on a Sunday or Monday night since the 2011 season. With Trevor Lawrence leading an ascending team, Jacksonville is evidently able to draw a large audience. It’d be a surprise if the team didn’t find itself in at least one primetime showcase in 2023.

Alabama-Arkansas was the most watched Week 5 CFB game

Alabama-Arkansas was the most viewed Week 5 game!

The highly anticipated top 20 showdown between the Alabama Crimson Tide and Arkansas Razorbacks lived up to the billing this past Saturday as it was the most watched game of the weekend, by a landslide. The CBS telecast amassed 5.8 million viewers, over one million more views than second-placed North Carolina State-Clemson on ABC which pulled in 4.7 million viewers.

The Tide came racing out to a 28-0 lead before Bryce Young left the game with an injury to his throwing shoulder. After the injury, the Hogs went on a 23-point run to cut the Alabama lead to 28-23. With no Young, this could have been a very dangerous spot for Alabama, but Jalen Milroe and Jahmyr Gibbs stepped up big time to guide the Tide out of Fayetteville with a 49-26 victory.

Alabama will likely put up massive viewership numbers again this week as they will be on the 7:00 CT CBS slot. Furthermore, the showdown with the Texas A&M Aggies has been brewing all season long and the people want to see how Coach Saban responds on the field to some of the things Jimbo Fisher said about him.

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With Tiger Woods back in Masters, viewership soars for first round on ESPN

ESPN says it had the most viewers since 2018 for its first-round TV coverage of the Masters Tournament.

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Call it the Tiger Effect, or just call it Masters excitement: ESPN reported viewership of Thursday’s first-round averaged 2.8 million viewers, a 21-percent increase over 2021’s opening-day viewership and the largest television audience of the first round since 2018.

ESPN said that its nearly five-hour Thursday telecast peaked at 3.6 million viewers between 4:15 and 4:29 p.m. ET as Woods played the final hole of his first competitive round since a car crash in 2021 left him with severe leg injuries.

Last year’s average viewership of the first round was 2.3 million.

ESPN+ also drew plenty of viewers, with ESPN saying the online livestream drew a record audience for golf but not providing figures in a media release announcing the news. Most of Woods’ round was played before the live television window began, so the livestream (which was also available at Masters.com) was the only option to catch the action.

ESPN’s “SportsCenter at the Masters” that ran from 10 a.m. through 3 p.m. also saw a large increase in viewers, up 149 percent over 2021’s first round and 120 percent over 2019. Showing a selection of live shots from Augusta National, the program averaged 801,000 viewers, including an average of 1.2 million between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. ET as Woods played the back nine.

ESPN concluded its TV coverage for 2022 with Friday’s second round. CBS takes over with network TV coverage for the 67th consecutive year.

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