Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
According to the latest Nielsen report, The Gauge, the month of October saw a 10% increase in sports viewership. To no surprise, it was NFL football games which dominated the month’s top broadcasts, including having the top 16 most-watched programs.
No. 1 on the list for the month was the Super Bowl rematch between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers. That game drove an average of 27 million viewers to FOX. FOX also had the No. 1 non-NFL broadcast, which was Game 1 of the World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees. That game drew an average audience of 15.2 million viewers, good for 17th in the month.
Other top broadcasts in the month include the Green Bay Packers-Los Angeles Rams matchup in week five which drew 20.27 million viewers along with the Sunday Night Football game that week between the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers which was also seen by just over 20 million viewers. A week 8 matchup between the Cowboys and 49ers saw 23.9 million viewers tune in on average.
The report also states cable viewing accounted for 26.3% of total TV usage in October (+0.2 pt.), and the category notched its first positive share change since April. In addition to gains which came due to the elections, there was a 52% boost in sports viewing driven by NFL Monday Night Football, college football and MLB playoff games.
Sports and news programs were also at the top of the most-watched cable telecasts list in October, with the NFL Monday Night Football game between Kansas City and New Orleans taking the top slot with 14 million viewers on ESPN, followed by FOX News Channel’s presentation of the VP Debate which drew 7.9 million viewers on the network. On a yearly basis, cable news was up 17% compared to October 2023, while cable sports was up 14%.
