Sport Business Journal Most Watched Telecasts of 2022
2 graphs from the Sports Business Journal I found interesting (and hope you do as well).
The first shows how dominant NFL broadcasts were relative to overall viewership (only 1 of the top 20 broadcasts was NOT an NFL games)
The second takes OUT all NFL broadcasts and shows how dominant sports viewership remained. The State of the Union address that sits on #9 with 34.6m viewers is at the top of this list but almost every other item in the top 15 is sports (college, Olympics, World Cup). Just reinforces why the dude in the red hat giving the refs permission to resume play is the most powerful person in the stadium. Also interesting to see that the top rated CFB game getting 22.5m viewers (Jan 2022 National Title) is beaten by a multitude of NFL games.
January 10th, 2023 at 5:42 PM ^
The first graphic just made me really excited that the NFL playoffs are starting up this weekend
January 10th, 2023 at 7:10 PM ^
Sad the Lions aren't in though. They were a lot of fun the last couple months.
January 10th, 2023 at 8:54 PM ^
After well over 50 years of Lions "fandom" I can actually say I enjoyed watching them play (after starting 1-6) and actually...am optimistic the team is going somewhere good. I know, I know, I'm delusional.
January 10th, 2023 at 9:28 PM ^
I'm hopeful too, but also leery that Lucy is gonna pull the football away again.
January 10th, 2023 at 9:58 PM ^
Why because you work for a major network and are excited about all the ad revenue?
January 10th, 2023 at 5:46 PM ^
3 thoughts:
1. The Olympics broadcast at #2 is just an NFL audience that didn't change channels.
2. I'll never understand why watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV is a thing.
3. Politics and Sports are effectively the same category in today's environment.
January 10th, 2023 at 6:08 PM ^
On point numbers 1 & 3 - especially point 3 - exactly.
Point number 2 - the Rose Parade out rates the actual game fairly frequently (including last week).
It's striking that one night is the only Olympics broadcast up there. As recently as the South Korean Winter Olympics in 2018, NBC was averaging 19.8MM viewers for their Prime Time broadcasts (the average was 21.3MM for Sochi 2014). Now, only a single night exceeded 16.6MM and that wouldn't be there w/o the Super Bowl bump.
The Olympics are falling off pretty steeply of late. The NFL has become more of an event, but everything else seemingly just holds steady or decreases.
January 10th, 2023 at 6:13 PM ^
I agree with #3 but not if it implies what many people do, that politics is frivolous because it is like amusements. ("Politics is a circus.")
Instead, I agree with the #3 because both have been become highly tribal. Facts, details, history, scores, heroes, villains—little of it matters except as it supports our tribe, disparages theirs.
January 10th, 2023 at 7:57 PM ^
Yeah that's how I meant it. Politics should be a sober, mostly boring field involving serious, mostly boring people debating the weeds of extremely important policies and making related speeches and remarks mostly on C-Span, but instead it's professional wrestling.
The entertainment aspect and drive for ratings (which, in turn, are driven by drama and conflict) obliterate the lower-rated but much more impactful substantive debates. I don't blame the politicians. I blame the voters. We're not a serious people for the most part.
January 10th, 2023 at 8:03 PM ^
January 10th, 2023 at 8:46 PM ^
A path led here.
January 10th, 2023 at 7:12 PM ^
2. I'll never understand why watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV is a thing.
Growing up, we always had it on in our house while finishing up the cooking. We weren't gathered around the sofa to watch it, it was just something to have on in the background that morning. Probably the case for a lot of people.
January 10th, 2023 at 8:43 PM ^
Nostalgia. Same with tried and true Xmas movies. Comforting background. We've all seen a fireplace before also and few of us still heat with wood (sorry XM) so why do it? Comforting.
Innate and always like sunsets and streams. James Earl Jones speech at the end of Field of Dreams.We seek context.
January 11th, 2023 at 7:37 AM ^
Same here - its always on (since nothing else is on) while we are getting things ready
January 10th, 2023 at 8:56 PM ^
And...
4. The entire world was watching the World Cup except us Americans.
January 10th, 2023 at 9:00 PM ^
They also thought earth was flat...so....
January 10th, 2023 at 9:53 PM ^
But damn that World Cup final was just amazing sports drama. Incredible, even for the non soccer fans. A shame more in US didn’t see it.
January 10th, 2023 at 9:20 PM ^
As parades go, I'm much more inclined to watch the Tournament of Roses Parade than any other.
And I always binge watch the Olympics, both the Summer Games and the Winter Games.
January 10th, 2023 at 5:58 PM ^
I didn't watch the live broadcast of the Game because I was there but I've probably watched it about five times since.
Does that count as zero, one or five?
January 10th, 2023 at 9:20 PM ^
Five, in my book.
January 10th, 2023 at 10:39 PM ^
Wherever you is you are. 0
January 10th, 2023 at 10:53 PM ^
...and You Are What You Is.
January 10th, 2023 at 6:23 PM ^
Interesting that the mens NCAA BBall championship game only outdrew the Michigan/ohio regular season football game by a very small number.
January 11th, 2023 at 9:12 AM ^
Indeed. Also, the basketball national-title game has the benefit of having no competition from within the sport. When M-OSU is played, there are plenty of other college football games going on at the same time.
January 10th, 2023 at 7:23 PM ^
Cheez-it Bowl didn't make it. Sad.
January 10th, 2023 at 8:27 PM ^
Which one?
January 10th, 2023 at 7:26 PM ^
Remarkable that there are no pro sports events at all in the second chart - not one MLB or NBA broadcast. College football and basketball are hanging in there, but the non-NFL pro leagues all seem to be in decline in terms of TV audiences.
Also surprised how strong the World Cup final ratings were. It was a storybook match, for sure (Messi trying to finally lift the trophy while Mbappé and France were going for the repeat), and featured some high drama, but I still wouldn't have expected such a large audience for a non-U.S. game.
January 10th, 2023 at 7:46 PM ^
NBA execs are still wishing for the next Jordan.
January 10th, 2023 at 9:51 PM ^
So how did the Suns sell for $4 billion? That's NFL-level money. I can't fathom how an NBA franchise could be worth that much. (The NBA has a $2 billion TV contract. The NFL has a $110 billion contract.)
Are overseas revenues that strong for the NBA? Or did Ishbia just get ripped off?
January 10th, 2023 at 10:52 PM ^
Globetrotter officiated, three point shooting, dunk contests don't resemble a serious competitive sport.
European hockey is no longer European. Doesn't have a punchers chance.
5 hour games , utilizing 42 enhanced specialists shifting to a juiced baseball are a luxury tax on peoples patience.
It is an escape so don't make it work or tribal. Can't see the forrest through the trees.
January 10th, 2023 at 7:43 PM ^
this is network tv
tv sitcoms and dramas have a lot of competition now from cable and internet. Those affect their viewing numbers.
January 10th, 2023 at 8:44 PM ^
Not a SINGLE scripted show was anywhere in the top 100. I agree that the market is very different from "Must See TV Thursday"; and the viewership is not even a whisper of the viewership shows got in those days. I don't really care one way or the other - but these results reinforce how different that is when a show like "Seinfeld" regularly got 30 million people to watch it every week.
January 10th, 2023 at 11:06 PM ^
Speaking of "scripted shows", I can't wait for the return on NBC next Tuesday evening of John Larroquette and "Night Court".
The original series back in the 80s is one of my all-time favorite comedies; if the reboot is even half as good it just might become a weekly must-watch for me.
January 11th, 2023 at 12:45 AM ^
One could argue the State of the Union is a scripted TV show (and has been for several decades now).
January 11th, 2023 at 8:23 AM ^
So you're telling me presidents have speech writers that prepare the speeches beforehand? Shocking.
January 10th, 2023 at 8:26 PM ^
People only watched the the state of the union for proof of life.
January 11th, 2023 at 7:18 AM ^
It’s possible to not show the entire board you’re a dumb asshole every chance you get.
January 11th, 2023 at 7:41 AM ^
I find the dumb asshole funny. Does that make you a smart asshole?
January 10th, 2023 at 8:45 PM ^
Wonder how the state of the union would fare if it wasn't on every broadcast channel. Ie, there were network tv broadcast alternatives.
January 10th, 2023 at 9:09 PM ^
I have to say I'm...a little mystified by my fellow Americans. I still don't understand why the NFL draws that many viewers. I mean, the fact that the Buccaneers and Rams drew more people than the State of the Union doesn't exactly bode well for the future of our democracy.
As a lover of all sports, I'm glad to see that the World Cup did OK (was a wild, exciting game) but bummed that the Olympics did not do well. The Olympics rules.
January 10th, 2023 at 9:58 PM ^
To be fair, Rams-Bucs was a damn good playoff game. Brady brought them back from down 27-3 to tie the game with 30 secs left. Stafford then immediately threw a bomb to Kupp to set them up for the game winning FG. For some reason people on this blog think it’s cool to hate the NFL but the playoffs are undeniably great to watch.
January 10th, 2023 at 10:17 PM ^
I think the playoffs are definitely a higher level of play and are typically a great product. And I guess the fact that Brady is on the Buccaneers juiced some of those ratings. But those are kind of weird teams and in an early round of the playoffs. Still kind of shocked more people watched that than the SOTU. I'm def an mgo-NFL-hater but I used to legitimately love it. It became too much, and grew too big and had too many scandals. And I don't like that it tries to be the most important thing in the world. It's entertaining for sure but I also think that most Americans could use some other hobbies and interests.
January 10th, 2023 at 10:24 PM ^
I consider myself a reasonably informed citizen, but I haven't watched the State of Union address in many years. Anything important in that speech will be recapped in the news over the next few days. There isn't any particular advantage to watching it live, unless you really enjoy constitutional protocol and standing ovations and such.
A live sporting event is another story. If it's a great game, you are missing out if you don't catch it. Watching the highlights on YouTube afterwards isn't the same.
January 11th, 2023 at 3:27 AM ^
I would be curious to see how the midterms election night coverage would have ranked, if you combined the viewership across the different channels. Election returns are a better parallel to sports than the scripted theatre of the SOTU.
January 11th, 2023 at 9:43 PM ^
Good thing we’re not a democracy
January 10th, 2023 at 9:56 PM ^
I'm guessing the Olympics numbers are down a bit because of the time zone factor. The Asia games typically struggle ratings wise.
January 10th, 2023 at 10:30 PM ^
Americans love football. But if you didn't attend a D1 college, don't live or didn't grow up in or around a D1 college town, aren't from a rural area, aren't from one of those states without an NFL team, and haven't spent most of your life in the same state that your parents are from too (and I'm saying none of those apply to you, not that all of them need to apply)....there's a pretty high probability that you follow the NFL but not college football.
That's a lot of people in this country, especially around the major metropolitan areas.
January 10th, 2023 at 11:04 PM ^
What we all want to know, or at least me:
How did the Georgia-TCU matchup compare to Michigan-OSU? I'd bet Michigan-OSU was better or damn close to that monstrosity some watched on Monday night.
January 10th, 2023 at 11:10 PM ^
Last night was 17.223M