Topline
For the first time this month, Tucker Carlson’s primetime Fox News show didn’t rank in the top two most watched broadcasts on cable TV last week — instead, the top slots went to a pair of NBA games on ESPN, a reflection of live sports’ enduring popularity for viewers and growing importance for media companies.
Tucker Carlson poses for photos in a Fox News Channel studio on March 2, 2017.
Key Facts
Some 5.6 million people tuned into a Wednesday night matchup between the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers, competing in the NBA’s “play-in” tournament for a spot in the playoffs, making it the most watched show on cable according to Nielsen — and ESPN’s most watched NBA game since 2019, the network says.
A Friday evening “play-in” game between the Warriors and the Memphis Grizzlies snagged the number two spot on cable TV, with 3.6 million viewers.
Carlson’s ratings are still strong: His Wednesday show drew in 3.2 million viewers and was the number three program on cable last week, and three other editions of Tucker Carlson Tonight ranked in the top 10 (the show averaged 2.9 million viewers for the week as a whole, a slight decrease from 3.2 million in the week prior).
A pair of Sunday NBA playoff games airing on TNT also placed in cable TV’s top 10: A game between the Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks ranked fourth (3 million total viewers), and a Memphis Grizzlies-Utah Jazz game ranked ninth (2.7 million total viewers).
The most popular non-Fox News or NBA broadcast last week was an episode of The Rachel Maddow Show that ranked in 15th place with 2.6 million viewers — Carlson also typically earns stronger ratings than MSNBC’s Chris Hayes and CNN’s Anderson Cooper, whose shows air at the same time.
Overall, Fox News was the highest rated cable network last week, averaging over 1.1 million viewers across the entire day, beating news competitors CNN and MSNBC as well as channels like ESPN, TNT, HGTV and the Hallmark Channel.
Tangent
When Carlson doesn’t snag the top spot on cable television, a live sporting event is sometimes the culprit. Two weeks ago, the top five cable broadcasts all belonged to Carlson, but in the first week of May, he fell just 10,000 viewers behind Fox Sports 1’s showing of a NASCAR Cup race. Carlson also took the top spot on cable for the first two full weeks of April, but the third week was dominated by CNN’s coverage of Derek Chauvin’s murder verdict, and ESPN’s broadcast of the NFL Draft beat the rest of cable TV in the final week of April.
Key Background
As TV audiences gradually shift to streaming services, sports have remained ratings powerhouses. Last year, the top five most watched primetime TV shows were all NFL games according to Variety, even though the NFL’s ratings dropped slightly from the previous season. Networks have demonstrated their interest in sports — and sports’ importance to their bottom line — by paying increasingly massive fees to broadcast games. In March, networks and streaming service Amazon Prime reportedly agreed to pay a combined $105 billion over 11 years to broadcast NFL games, almost doubling what some networks paid in their last contract with the league. Plus, CNBC speculates that the NBA could seek $8 billion per year from ESPN and Turner Sports in its next deal, roughly triple its current rate, and Turner Sports reportedly agreed to pay over $225 million per year to broadcast some NHL games last month.
Big Number
92 million. That’s how many Americans tuned into the Super Bowl this year, a contest between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs. It scored the lowest ratings of any Super Bowl since 2006 according to Nielsen, but if history is any indication, it will likely still be the most watched broadcast on television this year.
