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The NFL Sees Best Ratings Week Since 2016

The network-wide average of 18.5 million viewers was up 7% from the same Thursday-Monday period last season, according to the NFL.

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NFL

The NFL announced that more than 121 million total viewers took in the league’s opening weekend. That marks the NFL’s highest average opening weekend viewership since 2016.

The network-wide average of 18.5 million viewers was up 7% from the same Thursday-Monday period last season, according to the NFL. The 121 million total viewers represented an increase of 5% from last year.

“This was one of the greatest kickoff weekends in memory,” said NFL EVP/Communications, Public Affairs and Policy Jeff Miller, who noted that a record-high seven of the opening weekend’s games were decided by three points or less.

CBS, FOX and NBC grabbed 83 million viewers on Sunday and those viewers watched more than 12 billion minutes of game action. CBS, NBC, FOX and ESPN all had great opening weekend numbers.

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Kevin Hart Partnering with ESPN, Omaha Productions for New Alternate NBA Broadcast

More dates for “NBA Unplugged with Kevin Hart” will be announced as the NBA season continues, all of which will be available to watch on the ESPN app.

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Kevin Hart
Courtesy: Christopher Willard, ABC via Getty Images

ESPN has unveiled a new alternate presentation for its coverage of the NBA in tandem with Hartbeat and Omaha Productions. Award-winning actor and comedian Kevin Hart will host the broadcast, titled NBA Unplugged with Kevin Hart, which will also feature the Plastic Cup Boyz, Joey Wells, Will Horton and Na’im Lynn. These programs will be focused on how Hart and his friends watch the NBA and feature discussion and debate. Moreover, there will be special guest appearances from top athletes and celebrities.

The program will make its debut in tandem with the NBA In-Season Tournament Championship Game at 8:30 PM ET on ESPN2 and the ESPN app. Concurrently, the traditional broadcast of the contest begins at the same time and features the network’s new lead broadcast team of Mike Breen, Doris Burke and Doc Rivers, and is set to air on ABC.

Throughout the NBA season, seven episodes of NBA Unplugged with Kevin Hart will air in accordance with marquee games on ESPN platforms. At the moment, the other broadcasts of this alternate presentation that have been announced will take place on Friday, Jan. 5 and Wednesday, April 10, both on ESPN2 at 7:30 PM ET.

Hart founded Hartbeat, the global multi-platform media company that seeks to create entertaining content intersecting between comedy and culture. The entity is involved in creating the award-winning digital talk show Cold As Balls, along with the Olympic Highlights show featuring Hart and award-winning rap artist Snoop Dogg.

Omaha Productions, which was founded by Peyton Manning, has contributed to various ESPN alternate broadcasts in the past, including the NBA in Stephen A’s World and Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli, colloquially known as the “ManningCast.”

More dates for NBA Unplugged with Kevin Hart will be announced as the NBA season continues. Additionally, all of these broadcasts will be available to watch on the ESPN app.

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Kirk Herbstreit: I Don’t Have an Agenda About College Football

Herbstreit told Pat McAfee the notion he has influence over the CFP Committee is laughable.

Jordan Bondurant

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A photo of Kirk Herbstreit
(Photo: ESPN Images)

Florida State being left out of the College Football Playoff semifinals brought out plenty of conspiracies and beliefs that ESPN and personalities like Kirk Herbstreit somehow manipulated the rankings.

Herbstreit appeared on The Pat McAfee Show on Monday, where Pat joked that Kirk gets to decide who gets in the playoff as well as other awards like the Heisman.

Kirk tried to quell anything floating around that might insinuate he makes any big decisions like that.

“I know you’re kidding, but there’s some people that think you’re serious when it comes to ESPN or me or anybody having any agenda or having anything to do with these teams,” he said. “It’s the committee that ultimately decides what’s going to happen.”

“I don’t have an agenda on anything other than I just want to see the subjective analysis of who the best four teams are,” Herbstreit added.

Kirk Herbstreit continued by saying that some of the loudest voices are misunderstanding what factors into what schools make the final four.

He explained that it was clear that Michigan was one and Washington two. The next group of teams to consider was called a cluster and consisted of programs like Alabama, Texas, Florida State and Georgia. Herbstreit was reading from what the playoff committee has to go off of when it comes to generating a final ranking.

“Conference championship, strength of schedule, head-to-head competition is another thing,” he said. “Comparative outcomes with a common opponent. None of these are weighted more than the other. And the last thing is other relevant factors such as unavailability of key players or coaches that may have affected a team’s performance or likely will affect its postseason performance.”

“That’s where this, to me, that’s what separated these teams,” he said. “You couldn’t put Alabama ahead of Texas, Texas beat Alabama. Based on all of those things I just mentioned, they must’ve said, Texas is gonna go to number three probably because of the head-to-head. And then you got Alabama and Florida State and Georgia.”

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ESPN Sees Highest Ever Pac-12 Championship Game Ratings

The top-5 matchup marked the final game in the conference’s long history.

Jordan Bondurant

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Pac-12 Conference

The final football broadcast for the Pac-12 as we know it generated the highest viewership ever on Friday night for ESPN and its stable of college football.

Oregon and Washington, who will be members of the Big Ten next season, met for the Pac-12 championship in Las Vegas and brought in 9.2 million viewers in its Friday night primetime window on ABC.

The viewership for the game, which had College Football Playoff implications for both teams, was up 47% compared to the 2022 title game between USC and Utah.

The audience for the Huskies victory over the Ducks peaked at 11.1 million viewers from 11:30-11:45 PM Eastern.

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