The Studio Show Scorecard for Week of November 18-24

PT Rnk

TD Rnk

Nov Distr.
(000)
PT Vwr
(000)
LW/LY TD Vwr
(000)
TD HH TD Vwr
LW/LY

1

=

1

=

97370

3177

-8%

1195

0.8

-14%

=

=

84%

3177

-1%

1195

-14%

-0%

3

=

2

=

97407

702

-20%

337

0.2

-15%

-1

=

84%

702

+49%

337

-14%

+3%

2

=

3

=

72066

1101

+15%

287

0.2

+9%

+5

=

62%

1488

+841%

388

+2%

+146%

4

+2

4

+1

74882

230

+50%

111

0.1

+32%

+2

+2

65%

299

+70%

144

+45%

+40%

5

=

5

+1

78139

179

-7%

82

0.0

+21%

-2

+3

67%

223

+3%

102

+33%

+26%

7

-3

6

-2

88556

136

-53%

76

0.0

-33%

-2

-2

76%

150

0%

83

-27%

-19%

8

=

7

=

74685

92

+11%

64

0.0

+3%

=

=

64%

120

-9%

84

-1%

-11%

6

+1

8

+1

59078

148

+68%

58

0.0

+6%

-2

-3

51%

244

-9%

96

+10%

-28%

9

=

9

-1

81751

90

+18%

58

0.0

-4%

=

=

71%

107

+30%

69

-0%

+48%

10

=

10

=

70036

52

+44%

30

0.0

+35%

+1

+1

60%

72

+100%

41

+102%

+65%

I’ve introduced a new table below, tracking the retention for SportsCenter, Olbermann, and Fox Sports Live leading out of sports events. Ratings for these shows tend to be very lead-in dependent, and you generally expect the ratings to get bigger as the lead-in gets bigger. With retention, you expect the opposite: the smaller the lead-in, the bigger the retention as more people are watching specifically for that show. That’s why the Monday SportsCenter after Monday Night Football has poor retention compared to SportsCenters later in the week despite a massive audience. (This is also going to be the main place for me to list College Football Final and select other weekly ESPN2 shows. If a show actually has more viewers than its lead-in, I list the retention as “up” to signify that viewership went “up” and also that retention tells us little in this case.)

Other than MNF, SportsCenter can usually expect to retain around two-thirds of its lead-in audience. I have a small sample size, but what evidence I do have suggests Olbermann’s retention is much lower. Then there’s Fox Sports Live; with college basketball or weak college football as a lead-in it can achieve SportsCenter-esque retention, but it really doesn’t take much for FSL to retain just a fifth to a quarter of its lead-in; Wednesday’s FSL after the Ultimate Fighter has worse retention than the following day’s Olbermann, despite Olbermann having fewer raw viewers. Perhaps most distressingly, even a re-air of the Ultimate Fighter on Sunday night bleeds a ton of viewers when FSL comes on to just 9,000 viewers.

All numbers are in thousands of viewers and are from Son of the Bronx.

Approx. 6-10 AM ET

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

ESPN: SportsCenter (6-9 avg.) 562 623 423 588 571
ESPN2: Mike and Mike 318 260 311 250 278
FS1: Fox Sports Live (6-9 avg.) 7 24 15 21 21
GOLF: Morning Drive (7-9 avg.) 29 43 44 45 39
NFLN: NFLAM 129 81 69 67 150
NBATV: NBA Gametime (6-9 avg.) 25 25 33 39 32*

*Inside the NBA 6-8:30 avg.

Approx. 9 AM-Noon ET

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

ESPN: SportsCenter (9-12 avg.) 533 442 365 446 469
ESPN2: First Take (10-12) 487 443 346 288 381
FS1: Fox Sports Live (9-12 avg.) 7 21 5 27 22
GOLF: Morning Drive (9-11 avg.) 19 12 21^ n/a n/a
NBCSN: The Dan Patrick Show 31 18 18 29 15
ESPNEWS: Mike and Mike (10-1) 41 26 40 45 20
ESPNU: The Herd (10-1) 82 65 58 43 52
NFLN: NFLAM (10-2) 135 65 58 55 79
MLBN: Hot Stove (9-11) 14 18 21 33~ 18
NBATV: NBA Gametime (9-12 avg.) 16 25 20 21 10*

*Inside the NBA 8:30-12 avg.
†Aired 9-11
‡Partly pre-empted
^Aired 9-11:30
~Started at 8 AM

3 PM ET

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

ESPN: NFL Insiders 480 552 377 478 500
ESPN2: SportsNation 169 133 221 201  
FS1: Fox Soccer Daily (3:30-4) 32 26^ 15 19 23
ESPNEWS: SportsCenter 53 51 18 70 48
ESPNU: CFB Daily 59 51* 83 n/a n/a
MLBN: Intentional Talk (3-3:30) 6 18 32 40 37
MLBN: Clubhouse Confidential (3:30-4) 4 20 34 27 21

*First-run rating for The Experts 1-2:30; 2:30-4 re-air had 24,000 viewers
†Aired from 3-3:30; Mike and Mike’s Best of the NFL 3:30-4 had 593,000 viewers
‡Aired at 6 PM
^Aired at 2:30 as pregame

4 PM ET

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

ESPN: NFL Live 615 689 456 623 680
ESPN2: Highly Questionable (4-4:30) 251 n/a 283 229 n/a
ESPN2: Outside the Lines (4:30-5) 137 n/a 181 177 n/a
FS1: NASCAR Race Hub 112 79 91 119 73
ESPNEWS: SportsCenter 85 50 30 66 49
MLBN: Hot Stove 10 26 20 44 30*

*Started at 4:21
†Aired at noon

5 PM ET

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

ESPN: Around the Horn (5-5:30) 856 807 645 794 724
ESPN: PTI (5:30-6) 1149 1179 974 1169 841
ESPN2: College Football Live (5-5:30) 88 91 137 n/a n/a
ESPN2: ESPNFC (5:30-6) 59 157† 103 n/a n/a
FS1: Crowd Goes Wild 37 51 26 61 39
NBCSN: Pro Football Talk (5:30-6:30) 51* 30 22 44 29
ESPNEWS: SportsCenter 93 97 61 100 100
ESPNU: College Football Live (5:30-6) 52 n/a n/a n/a n/a
NFLN: NFL Fantasy Live 153 88 104 94 74

*Aired 5-6:30
†ESPN2 shows switched time slots; ESPNFC aired at 4:45 as postgame

6 PM ET

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

ESPN: SportsCenter 962 931 826 902 587
FS1: Fox Football Daily 31 n/a 33 34 74
ESPNEWS: Around the Horn (6-6:30) 153^ 114 63 110 75
ESPNEWS: PTI (6:30-7) 257^ 109 n/a 110 84
NFLN: Around the League Live 163 172 156 61* 138
MLBN: MLB Tonight 46 45 72 62 73
NBATV: The Starters 13 45 48 33 71

*Aired 2-5; NFL Total Access 6-8 had 463,000 viewers
†Monday Kickoff from 6-6:30; SportsCenter on ESPNEWS 6:30-7 had 99,000 viewers
‡SportsNation 6-7; Boxing Special on ESPN2 had 103k and 102k viewers for each half-hour
^Aired on ESPN2; PTI re-air at 6 on ESPNEWS had 108,000 viewers

Late-Night Retention

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

Sun

ESPN: SportsCenter 4525 752 1317 656 1088 1199 460
28.7% 72.8% 63.7% 67.5% 65.1% 49.5% Up
ESPN2: SportsCenter
or Olbermann
155 170 518 81 230† 208* n/a
83.3% 39.1% 49.2% 21.3% 33.8% 22.3% n/a
FS1: Fox Sports Live 22 23 104 48 43 79 9
34.9% 63.9% 20.4% 60.8% 79.6% 22.4% 22.0%

*College Football Final (2)
†NFL Kickoff (1:30)

11 PM ET

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

ESPN: SportsCenter 155† 710 518‡ 656 104^ 1199
FS1: Fox Sports Live 22 23 104 48 43 79
ESPNEWS: Olbermann 51 n/a 97 60 n/a n/a
NFLN: NFL Total Access 158* 156 91 3098* 212 138

*Aired 11:30-12 (Retention from TNF: 40.3%)
†Aired on ESPN2 11-11:30
‡Aired on ESPN2
^Aired on ESPNEWS

Midnight ET

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

ESPN: SportsCenter 4525 790 1317 664 132* 900
ESPN2: Olbermann 97 170 290 81 n/a n/a
FS1: Fox Sports Live 6 362‡ 42‡ 33 31‡ 26

*Aired on ESPNEWS
†Started closer to 11:30
‡Fox Football Daily (Tuesday airing was first-run)

1 AM ET

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

ESPN: SportsCenter 116* 202* 968 634 1088 857
FS1: Fox Sports Live 17 22 26 14 34 15
NFLN: NFL Fantasy Live 108 72 107 662 65 n/a

*Aired on ESPN2; NFL Primetime had 1.690 million viewers

2 AM ET

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

ESPN: SportsCenter 1225 215* 769 659 727 693
FS1: Fox Sports Live 12 19 30 2 13 13
NFLN: NFL Total Access 74 69 91 436 53 171

* Aired on ESPN2 due to World Cup qualifier

Saturday Morning  
ESPN: SportsCenter 8 ET 872
ESPN2: NFL Matchup 8:30 ET 140
FS1: Fox Sports Live 8-10 avg. 18
NBATV: NBA Gametime 8-12 avg. 50
ESPN: College Gameday 9 ET 1787
ESPN2: SportsCenter 9-12 avg. 290
ESPNU: Dari and Mel 9 ET 37
GOLF: Morning Drive 9:30-11:30 avg. 51
FS1: Fox College Saturday 10 ET 44
ESPNU: First Take CFB 10 ET 5
ESPNU: Film Room 10:30 ET 20
ESPNU: Whiparound 11 ET 30

morganwick.com

Sun 7 AM 8 AM 9 AM 10 AM 11 AM Noon

SportsCenter

SportsCenter

SportsCenter

Sunday NFL Countdown

639K/.5

891K/.6

1.046M/.7

2.200M/1.5

CFB Final

OTL

SR

Colin on FB

SportsCenter

Fantasy FB Now

242K/.2

231

285

245K/.2

329K/.2

424K/.3

Fox Sports Live

Fox Sports Live

Fox Sports Live

Fox Sports Live

Fox NFL Kickoff

38K/.0

38K/.0

76K/.1

49K/.0

122K/.1

OTL

SR

Colin on FB

SportsCenter

SportsCenter

95

118

103K/.1

142K/.1

115K/.1

NFL Gameday First

NFL Gameday Morning

193K/.1

404K/.3

MLB Tonight

MLB Tonight

MLB Tonight

MLB Tonight

5K/.0

13K/.0

16K/.0

33K/.0

NBA Gametime

NBA Gametime

NBA Gametime

NBA Gametime

NBA Gametime

40K/.0

51K/.0

47K/.0

57K/.0

86K/.1

*Aired to 8:30

Afternoon Post/SNF Bridge  
NBC: Hyundai Sunday Night Kickoff (8-8:20) 13,713
ESPN: SportsCenter (7-8:30) 475
NFLN: NFL Gameday Highlights (7:30-8:30) 343

morganwick.com

Sunday Night  
ESPN: SportsCenter 11:15 460
ESPN: SportsCenter 1 810
ESPN2: ESPNFC 12 41
FS1: Fox Sports Live 11 9
FS1: Fox Sports Live 12:30 16
NFLN: NFL Gameday Overtime 11:30 146
NFLN: NFL Gameday Final 1 245

morganwick.com

Weekly Shows on ESPN and Networks Not On Chart  
ESPN: Monday Night Countdown Mon 6:30p 2545
ESPN: Top NFL Matchup Airing Sat/Sun 4a 694
ESPN: KIA NBA Shootaround Fri 7:30p 609
ESPN: BCS Countdown Sun 8:30p 546
ESPN: NFL Primetime First-Run Mon 2p 480
ESPN: Football Sunday on ESPN Radio Sun 3p 293

morganwick.com

Top 10 Non-ESPN Weekly Shows Not Otherwise On Chart  
NFLN: Playbook AFC Fri 9p 271
NFLN: Playbook NFC Fri 10p 210
NFLN: A Football Life Tue 9p 206
NBCSN: Premier League Goal Zone Sun 1p 202
GOLF: Big Break XX: NFL Tue 9p 187
ESPN2: NBA Coast to Coast Mon 9p 186
NFLN: NFL Gamecenter Sun 1p 186
NFLN: Film Session Sat 9p 168
NFLN: NFL Gameday Scoreboard Sun 4p 141
FS1: UFC Tonight Wed 7p 136
NBCSN: NFL Turning Point Wed 12a 130
NFLN: NFL Replay Wed 9p 125
NBCSN: Costas Tonight Wed 11p 121

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