Record-Setting Day: ESPN's Weekday Studio Show Lineup Sets New Viewership Highs on Jan. 15
· Fans Turned to ESPN's Industry-Leading Roster of Signature Personalities for NFL Super Wild Card Weekend Reactions, News & Analysis
· The Pat McAfee Show, First Take, Get Up, 2 p.m. ET Edition of SportsCenter & NFL Live All Set New Viewership Records
Fans turned to ESPN in record numbers on Monday, Jan. 15, following the start of NFL Super Wild Card weekend and leading up to ESPN's Monday night finale. The weekday lineup, led by an industry-leading roster of signature personalities, featuring The Pat McAfee Show, First Take, Get Up, the 2 p.m. ET edition of SportsCenter and NFL Live, all far-surpassed previous viewership highs, setting new all-time records across the schedule.
"Monday's record-breaking viewership across multiple programs, further proves that ESPN is the top destination for sports fans by far," said Burke Magnus, president of content at ESPN. "It also validates our approach of engaging fans across multiple platforms with content that offers a singular mix of expertise, authority and fun. All of it presented by the best roster of on-air talent in the business and produced by our incredibly talented staff behind the scenes."
The Pat McAfee Show, the highly successful and innovative weekday sports talk and discussion program, scored its most-watched episode in the four months the show has been on ESPN platforms as part of the unrivaled day for the network. The Monday episode brought in 811,000 linear viewers alone - an astounding 70% increase over the program's previous record high (Dec. 26, 2023), and totaled 946,000 across simulcast options (linear, YouTube and ESPN+). The record-setting audience finished the day with over three times the competition's viewership. All viewing options, including segments and clips of the episode, reached a staggering 3.25 million total views across the three platforms for the day.
In the first two weeks of the new year, The Pat McAfee Show has seen a significant spike averaging 517,000 cumulative viewers - a 26% year-over-year increase compared to the same time slot.
Fans could not miss ESPN's signature morning debate show First Take on Monday, with featured commentator and executive producer Stephen A. Smith and host Molly Qerim, for reaction to the Dallas Cowboys' playoff loss and all things NFL Super Wild Card weekend. The duo crushed the previous most-watched day of 918,000 avg. viewers (Jan. 17, 2022) by 63% and over 500,000, averaging 1.5 million viewers from 10 a.m. - noon ET.
This further adds to the show's long-term, on-going audience success, currently at 17 consecutive months of year-over-year viewership growth and First Take also finished 2023 as the most-watched year ever.
Get Up also set a record for show viewership on Monday. The morning show - which airs weekdays from 8-10 a.m. ET on ESPN - had 979,000 viewers tune into Monday's show, up 34% from the previous high of 730,000 viewers a little over a year ago on Jan. 3, 2023. The record show comes on the heels of a record year.
Monday's 2 p.m. ET edition of SportsCenter with Shae Cornette and Hannah Storm continued the record-breaking trend, posting its largest single day audience since its launch in September. The show averaged 727,000 viewers during its 60 minutes, up 76% from its previous high of 414,000 earlier this month on Jan. 2.
The unparalleled day across ESPN culminated with NFL Live, which earned an audience of 937,000 viewers for its special Super Wild Card edition from 3-4 p.m. ET, a record audience for the show. The early start time ahead of ESPN's Eagles-Buccaneers game, from Raymond James Stadium, was also up 17% from NFL Live's Super Wild Card show in January 2023 from 4-5 p.m. ET, also from Tampa Bay ahead of ESPN's playoff game.
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