SKEDBALL: Weekend Sports TV Ratings

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The ratings below are household ratings from the 56 television markets with local Nielsen meters for Saturday January 18 and Sunday January 19, 2014. The 56 markets (out of 210 total) cover about 70% of the US television population.

NFL Playoffs: Conference Championships Weekend

Sunday
29.5 rating CBS 3:00 AFC New England-Denver (+6% from 27.9 for BAL-NE last year and +1% from 29.1 for BAL-NE two years ago)
31.0 rating FOX 6:45 NFC San Francisco-Seattle (+19% from 26.1 for SF-ATL last year and -7% from 33.4 for NYG-SF in OT two years ago)

In addition to the 56-market composite ratings above, the table below summarizes ratings for the AFC and NFC Championship games Sunday in the four markets with teams involved.  Seattle (54.3 HH rating) and Denver (53.0 HH rating) had the best local support, with well above half the homes in the market watching their teams win.  The losing team’s markets (San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose and Boston) were closer to the 45 rating level.  Denver viewers kept watching the NFC game in very large numbers (the 36.9 HH rating in Denver exceeded the national average of 31.0 for the NFC Championship).  Meanwhile, Boston viewers turned off their TVs in droves and couldn’t stomach more football after their frustrating loss.

Finally, the 10 largest TV markets without a team involved in the AFC or NFC Championship are listed below.  For both the AFC and NFC Championship game, Washington DC and Phoenix had the best ratings among the large markets without a contending team.  On the flip side, New York and Houston were the weakest large TV markets for both games.  Los Angeles (still without an NFL team) had very low ratings for the AFC game, but the NFC Championship rating in LA was solid (near the national average).

College Basketball

1.23 rating 12:00 pm Saturday CBS NR-Tennessee vs #13-Kentucky
1.62 rating 2:00 pm Saturday CBS NR-NC State vs #23-Duke
1.41 rating 4:00 pm Saturday CBS #9-Oklahoma State vs #15-Kansas

US Olympic Trials

0.67 rating NBC 2:30 pm Saturday Freestyle Grand Prix
0.53 rating NBC 3:15 pm Sunday Snowboard Grand Prix

NHL

1.4 rating NBC 12:30 pm Sunday Boston vs Chicago OT
0.24 rating NBCSN 7:30 pm Sunday Washington vs NY Rangers

English Premier League Soccer

Saturday
0.19 rating NBCSN 7:45 am Southampton vs Sunderland
0.40 rating NBCSN 10:00 am Fulham vs Arsenal
0.75 rating NBC 12:30 pm Liverpool vs Aton Villa

Sunday
0.24 rating NBCSN 8:30 am Tottenham Hotspur vs Swansea City
0.53 rating NBCSN 11:00 am Manchester United vs Chelsea