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ESPN has televised the Top 20 most-viewed programs in cable TV history
ESPN was the most-watched cable network in primetime in 2014. The network followed up that milestone with its most-viewed week ever (Monday, Dec. 29, 2014 – Sunday, Jan. 4, 2015), while televising the Top 3, and four of the Top 9, most-watched programs in cable history, according to Nielsen, over the past 11 days. With last night’s Oregon-Ohio State College Football Playoff National Championship setting a new cable viewership record, ESPN telecasts now claim every spot in cable’s all-time Top 20 (chart below). The photo gallery above highlights some of the memorable college football and NFL games on the list.
Top 20 Most-Viewed Programs in Cable Television (Viewers) | ||||
Rank | Date | Program | Network | Viewers (000s) |
1 | 1/12/15 | CFB/National Championship: Oregon-Ohio State^ | ESPN | 33,395 |
2 | 1/1/15 | CFB/Sugar Bowl: Alabama-Ohio St. ^^ | ESPN | 28,271 |
3 | 1/1/15 | CFB/Rose Bowl: Oregon-Florida St. ^^ | ESPN | 28,164 |
4 | 1/10/11 | CFB/BCS Champ: Oregon-Auburn | ESPN | 27,316 |
5 | 1/7/13 | CFB/BCS Champ: Alabama-Notre Dame | ESPN | 26,380 |
6 | 1/6/14 | CFB/BCS Champ: Florida St.-Auburn | ESPN | 25,572 |
7 | 1/9/12 | CFB/BCS Champ: Alabama-LSU | ESPN | 24,214 |
8 | 10/5/09 | NFL MNF: Green Bay-Minnesota | ESPN | 21,839 |
9 | 1/3/15 | NFL Wild Card: Arizona-Carolina^^^ | ESPN | 21,678 |
10 | 11/30/09 | NFL MNF: New England-New Orleans | ESPN | 21,402 |
11 | 1/1/11 | CFB/Rose Bowl: TCU-Wisconsin | ESPN | 20,558 |
12 | 12/27/10 | NFL MNF: New Orleans-Atlanta | ESPN | 19,137 |
13 | 10/27/14 | NFL MNF: Washington-Dallas | ESPN | 18,809 |
14 | 1/1/14 | CFB/Rose Bowl: Stanford-Michigan State | ESPN | 18,636 |
15 | 9/15/08 | NFL MNF: Philadelphia-Dallas | ESPN | 18,608 |
16 | 10/25/10 | NFL MNF: NY Giants-Dallas | ESPN | 17,953 |
17 | 1/2/12 | CFB/Rose Bowl: Wisconsin-Oregon | ESPN | 17,558 |
18 | 12/3/07 | NFL MNF: New England-Baltimore | ESPN | 17,522 |
19 | 9/27/10 | NFL MNF: Green Bay-Chicago | ESPN | 17,454 |
20 | 10/11/10 | NFL MNF: Minnesota-NY Jets | ESPN | 17,313 |
^ = College Football Playoff National Championship | ||||
^^ = College Football Playoff Semifinal | ||||
^^^ = NFL Playoffs |
Bill Hofheimer contributed to this post