Ratings Roundup: Super Bowl LI Halftime Show Is Most-Watched Musical Event In History; NHRA on Fox Revs Up

Ratings roundup is a rundown of ratings news from the past week and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week’s edition, the Super Bowl LI Halftime Show featuring Lady Gaga is the most-watched musical event of all-time across all platforms, NHRA revs up its most watched broadcast in its 57-year history, the Warriors-Thunder NBA Saturday Primetime on ABC game is the most-watched and highest-rated, non-Christmas NBA regular-season game on any network in four years, UNC-Duke is the most-watched weekday college basketball game of the year on any network, UConn’s 100th straight victory marks the highest-rated college basketball game on ESPN2 this season among men’s and women’s telecasts, and the Philadelphia 76ers ratings are up 111% over last year on CSN…

…The Super Bowl LI Halftime Show featuring Lady Gaga is the most-watched musical event of all-time across all platforms and the most-watched Super Bowl halftime performance in history through broadcast and digital channels, according to the NFL. Nearly 118 million viewers tuned into the performance on the FOX broadcast network. In addition, Lady Gaga’s performance at NRG Stadium in Houston is the most-viewed content on NFL’s digital platforms, including but not limited to NFL.com, NFL Mobile, Twitter, YouTube, and Giphy. Through these channels, the Pepsi Zero Sugar Super Bowl LI Halftime Show reached at least 150 million unique people, garnering more than 80 million views and totaling 260 million minutes watched.

The Halftime Show is the most-watched video on the NFL’s YouTube channel, with more than 24 million views and more than 140 million minutes watched. If Lady Gaga’s performance was its own NFL week on YouTube, it would be the fifth-highest watched week of all-time.

During Lady Gaga’s live performance, there were 2.2 million real-time tweets about the #PepsiHalftime show, as well as a total of 5.1 million tweets about the performance leading up to, during, and in the 10 minutes following.@NFL’s tweet drove 47 thousand retweets and 29 thousand likes. More than 49 million video views, and more than 5 million reactions, comments, and shares. GIFs from the Halftime show generated more than 75 million views across GIPHY’s network. Four of the top ten most-viewed GIFs of the night were from the performance. (NFL)…

…2017 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series opener last weekend, 1.22 million viewers watched as Leah Pritchett secured her second career Top Fuel win during the three-hour live broadcast of the Circle K NHRA Winternationals.  This marked it as the most watched broadcast in its 57-year history. Including the re-air on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) the eliminations broadcast was up 91% over last year’s telecast on FS1. The qualifying shows during the opening weekend also had strong viewership on FS1. The Friday night qualifying show had 193,000 viewers and was the most watched program on the network during the day. The live one-hour qualifying show on Feb. 11 had viewership of 195,000 at 1 p.m. Eastern. In total, over 1.9 million viewers watched the telecasts during the course of the kick-off event. (NHRA)…

…The Golden State Warriors’ victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on the Feb. 11 edition of NBA Saturday Primetime on ABC averaged 6,036,000 viewers (p2+) and a 3.4 U.S. household rating, making it the most-watched and highest-rated, non-Christmas NBA regular-season game on any network in four years (since Feb. 10, 2013, Lakers-Heat on ABC). According to Nielsen, the broadcast peaked with 7,038,000 viewers from 11-11:15 p.m. ET, despite the 16 point margin of victory. This is the most-watched and highest-rated broadcast in the two-season history of NBA Saturday Primetime on ABC franchise.Saturday’s broadcast was up 74 percent in viewership and 55 percent in U.S. household rating from last season’s comparable game between the Golden State Warriors and the LA Clippers, which did 3,472,000 viewers and a 2.2 U.S. household rating.

The Golden State-Oklahoma City showdown also delivered the largest streaming audience of the NBA Saturday Primetime on ABC series. According to updated streaming information, it generated an average minute audience of 89,000 viewers, 335,000 unique viewers and 15.2 million total minutes streamed. In total, an average live audience of 6,125,000 viewers (television + streaming) watched the Warriors-Thunder matchup. (ESPN)…

…North Carolina at Duke (February 9 at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN) delivered a total live audience (TV + Streaming) of 3,184,000 viewers, the most-watched weekday college basketball game of the year on any network.  The viewership is up 8% from the Tar Heels-Blue Devils’ first meeting last season on February 17, 2016 (2,938,000 viewers). The matchup is ESPN’s second to surpass 3 million viewers this season, joining Kansas at Kentucky as part of the 2017 SEC/Big 12 Challenge on Saturday, January 28 (3,426,000 viewers). The television viewership (3,081,000 viewers) peaked at 4,068,000 people during the final minutes of the second half (9:45 p.m. – 10 p.m.).

ESPN’s streaming of the game had an average minute audience of 103,000 viewers with a total of 319,000 viewers watching 12,675,000 minutes, new records in all three categories for a college basketball game on ESPN. Oregon at UCLA (February 9 at 10 p.m. on ESPN) delivered a total live audience of 1,709,000 viewers, ESPN’s most-watched Pac-12 conference regular season game (records go back to 1992). On television, overnight local ratings set a record in Portland and a nine-year high in Los Angeles.

Overall, ESPN’s averaged 2,471,000 viewers during the Sonic Blockbuster doubleheader on Thursday, February 9 (8 p.m. to midnight). (ESPN)…

…Top ranked UConn’s 66-55 milestone 100^th-consecutive victory over No. 6 South Carolina on Monday, Feb. 13 (9 p.m. ET, ESPN2), delivered a 0.9 overnight rating, marking the highest-rated college basketball game on ESPN2 this season among men’s and women’s telecasts, and the highest-rated women’s college basketball regular season game since 2010. Online, the game also attracted 69,000 unique viewers with a total of 1,700,000 minutes watched, which makes this matchup the most streamed women’s college basketball regular-season game to date televised by ESPN. The Big Monday matchup ties Tennessee vs. Duke (Jan. 23, 2006) as the fourth-highest regular-season women’s college basketball game across all ESPN networks.

Hartford/New Haven, the No. 1 local market, earned a 14.3 local rating, making this the highest-rated women’s college basketball game in market across all ESPN networks since 2010. Greenville was second with a 2.3 rating, followed by Knoxville (2.0), Charlotte (1.7) and Cincinnati (1.6). (ESPN)…

…Philadelphia 76ers game broadcasts are averaging a 1.9 household rating on Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia, up 111% over ratings for last season’s 72-loss team. The last time the team’s broadcasts have received ratings like this were during the 2011-12 season when the Sixers made their last trip to the postseason. (Philly.com)…