Ratings Roundup: 2022 NBA Draft Goes Up 33% From Last Year; Yankees Stay Hot on YES Network Over the Past Week

Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week’s edition, ESPN sees a 33% increase for the 2022 NBA Draft compared to last year, the New York Yankees stay hot on YES Network, and more.

Viewership for 2022 NBA Draft Presented By State Farm Up 33% From Last Year

Viewership for the 2022 NBA Draft Presented By State Farm (Thursday, June 23), was up 33 percent from last year, according to Nielsen. The first round across ABC and ESPN averaged nearly four million viewers (3,988,000), up 32 percent from last year’s NBA Draft first round, which also aired on ABC and ESPN.

Overall, the 2022 NBA Draft averaged 3,047,000 viewers for both rounds (round two aired on ESPN only). The first round of the NBA Draft across ABC and ESPN was the most-watched program for June 23 across all of television and in all key demos. The event peaked with 4,500,000 viewers at 8:15 p.m. ET.

Yankees Stay Hot on YES Network Over the Past Week

Monday night’s Yankees-A’s game was YES Network’s most-viewed game in four years with 498,000 average total viewers. The game peaked during the 10:00-10:15 quarter hour at

637,000 total viewers. 11 of YES Network’s 16 most-viewed games of the season have occurred in the month of June. The network is also on pace to have its best June in 12 years in terms of Yankees game viewership.

Last Thursday’s Yankees-Astros game on YES Network peaked at 696,000 total viewers from 10:15 to 10:30 p.m. ET, a 32% increase from the 526,000 total viewers in the previous quarter-hour.

Stadium & Shams Charania Deliver Massive Rating at the NBA Draft

Inside The Association: Draft Special Presented by AT&T and Safelite was a four-hour broadcast emanating from Stadium’s Chicago studio with NBA Insider, Shams Charania, stationed in Brooklyn at the NBA Draft.

The show was hosted by Camron Smith, Pat Garrity, Jeff Goodman, and Miami Heat forward Max Strus, who interacted with Charania to provide insights and analysis throughout the broadcast.

The live broadcast on Twitter delivered 4.45 million views on Thursday night. By comparison, in 2021, Stadium delivered 1.2 million views, which resulted in a nearly 270% increase year to year. To date, it’s the highest amount of views Stadium has delivered via the Twitter platform.

NASCAR Cup Series Race at Nashville Superspeedway

Despite the impact of rain, the NASCAR Cup Series ranked as the #2 sport of the weekend on television. NCS at Nashville earned a 1.81 rating on NBC, with an average of 2.921M viewers tuned in to NBC coverage (the first 140 of 300 laps). NBC coverage represents 5:17PM – 5:37PM and 6:35PM – 7:52PM (i.e., the initial red flag is excluded from the program rating)

The 1.81 rating earned at Nashville on NBC in 2022 was greater than 5 of 7 NBC races in 2021. The rating was up +1% over 2021 Road America on NBC (1.79, Race 20) and 24% over 2021 Nashville on NBCSN (1.46, Race 17). Nashville viewership on NBC was greater than 4 of 7 NBC Races in 2021. Viewership was down -6% versus 2021 Road America on NBC (3.1 million, Race 20) and up +11% over 2021 Nashville on NBCSN (2.6 million, Race 17). Viewership peaked at 7:45pm with an average of 3.3 million viewers tuned in

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