Ratings Roundup: Super Bowl Postgame Up, NFL Honors Fails to Draw in Audiences

While the big game itself pulled in the largest audience in the history of American television, the inaugural NFL Honors awards show drew just a 2.2 final rating and 3.524 million viewers on NBC Saturday night. That ranks behind the network’s telecast of Harry’s Law earlier in the night (2.6, 4.050M). In the all-important adults 18-49 demographic, the show earned a 0.9 rating — tied for just sixth for the night among the Big Four broadcast networks…

…As for the Super Bowl postgame, which ran for just fifteen minutes leading into NBC’s highly-publicized season premier of the “The Voice”, the network earned a 35.3 overnight rating — up 17% from last year’s postgame on FOX (30.3). NBC surprisingly did not provide post-game coverage on its rebranded NBC Sports Network (previously Versus), opting to air rugby instead. As a result, ESPN’s NFL Primetime telecast earned a 1.9 overnight, up 36% from last year (1.4), and SportsCenter drew a 1.5, up 15%…

…ESPN and ABC continue to outpace last year’s audiences for the NBA this season, with ESPN drawing a 31% percent ratings increase for a 1.7 average so far this season. The channel is also up 27% in household impressions and up 20% among viewers when comparing Christmas-to-date with last season. NBA games on ABC, meanwhile, are up 18% percent in ratings with a 4.7 and viewers and up 16% in households with an average of 5,347,000…

…NBA TV’s game coverage has also seen a rise in ratings this year, averaging 391,000 total viewers and 306,000 total households, up 74% and 78% respectively, through the first 34 games of the regular season. In addition, NBA TV has also shown the largest universe growth of any cable network since the start of the year with an increase of over 3.3 million households. The 2011-12 regular season has already delivered the three most watched regular season games in network history (last season’s Grizzlies-Spurs playoff game on April 27 is the highest rated overall with 835,000 viewers):

• LA Lakers at LA Clippers: 756,000 viewers  (1/14/12, Regular Season)
• Chicago Bulls at LA Clippers: 722,000 viewers (12/30/11, Regular Season)
• LA Clippers at LA Lakers: 686,000 viewers (1/25/12, Regular Season)

NBA TV’s popular Fan Night games – where fans vote for the games they want to see online are also up compared to the same time a year ago. The first seven Fan Night games of the regular season averaged 502,000 viewers and 400,000 households, up 35% and 45%, respectively, compared to the same time period last year…

In terms of local NBA ratings, Sixers’ game broadcast and pre and postgame ratings on Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia are averaging double-digit increases over last season. The Sixers win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Feb. 6 averaged a 5.1 HH rating (153,000 HHs), making it the highest-rated Sixers game since March 1, 2005. Year-to- date, Sixers games on Comcast SportsNet are averaging 2.81 household rating, up 77% over last season’s average