With the Heisman Trophy Ceremony in New York and IU basketball in Kentucky, most IU fans were left to their screens to witness a memorable Saturday night.
The result was outlier audiences at both ABC and ESPN.
The Heisman Trophy Ceremony on ABC drew its best audience since 2012, says Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal. 4.3 million viewers saw Fernando Mendoza win the award, the biggest Heisman audience since 2012 says Karp. This year’s Heisman presentation was up 1.8 million viewers over last year, and Saturday night’s one-hour telecast peaked at 5.8 million viewers during the announcement.
Around 15 minutes before Mendoza was revealed as the Heisman winner, IU basketball and Kentucky tipped their first regular season game in 14 years at Rupp Arena.
Most of the IU portion of the audience was probably late arriving, but the basketball game on ESPN produced big numbers as well.
ESPN says 2.0 million tuned in for the IU vs. Kentucky basketball game, making it the most watched college basketball game on the network this year, and ESPN’s most-watched December college basketball game in five years.
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