Hi, I'm Flora | SVP @ESPN Research | bringing you thoughts on fans, sports & media trends
Joined October 2009
- Tweets2.3K
- Following505
- Followers30.3K
- Likes502
One of the more interesting stories behind College GameDay’s growth is who is watching.
Teen viewership is up 38% vs. last year, while women continue to make up a growing share of the audience—now at 35%, above the typical studio show
Via @ESPNInsights 👀
Amidst a record-setting 2026 season, women and younger viewers are fueling @CollegeGameDay's continued growth 📈
Flora Kelly retweeted
Disney+ to carry Super Bowl LXI simulcast, as well as two ‘MNF’ games this season
And yes, the viewership will count
sportsbusinessjournal.com/Ar…
The WNBA continues to show its strength
Both Sunday playoff games were up significantly vs. last year while going head-to-head with NFL games
Liberty/Lynx 1.2M, +26%
Fever/Aces 2.1M, +122%
Fever/Aces was also ESPN’s 3rd most-watched WNBA playoff game ever
A Saturday sweep for ESPN
ESPN on ABC had the 3 most-watched college football games of the week — taking the top spot at noon, late afternoon and prime
Texas/Tennessee led the way at 9.7M, peaking at 12.9M in the final minutes. The biggest noon game on any network this season.
MNF off to a record start despite heartbreaking Dart injury. A strong sign of the interest in Giants-Rams was audiences grew 31% from kickoff to halftime — well ahead of the typical 20% growth we saw on average across ESPN/ABC MNF games last season.
Monday Night Football’s historic start to ESPN’s Super Bowl LXI season continued with a record-setting Week 2 audience🏈
Details: bit.ly/4hJNwdS
The value of Prime, even when weather gets in the way.
The two most-watched CFB games of Week 3: FSU/Bama (7M) and Ole Miss/LSU (10.9M) — despite a rain delay and prime overlap.
ESPN had the top 5 games of the week.
Who was #6? NBC’s primetime window ND/Michigan State.
Week 3 belonged to @ESPNCFB 🏈
✅ Top 5 most-watched games
✅ Won every Saturday window
✅ @LSUfootball-@OleMissFB (10.9M viewers) topped all nets, outperforming the nearest competitor by 237%
✅ 66% of total viewing share
It’s tough to gauge the health of a sport early on with differences in scheduling and competitiveness of games That’s why College GameDay has always been my early bellwether for college football
Hitting 2.7M - an all-time Week 2 high -is a strong sign for college football
🤘 @CollegeGameDay scored its most-watched Week 2 episode EVER from Austin, Texas
🏈 2.7M avg. viewers; 7th most-watched regular season show all-time
📈 The final hour drew 3.4M viewers & more than doubled the competition (+102%)
SMU/Florida State on Monday averaged 4.1M viewers,after a delayed start. Not bad considering the 106-minute power-outage delay prior to the game averaged 3.4M viewers. Fans stuck around to watch the game
'Taylor' made for the spotlight 🎙️
See how @TaylorTannebaum & @Taylor_McGregor kept @ESPNCFB viewers informed during a power outage to end Week 1 ➡️ bit.ly/3TklQTx
The Knicks historic Game 4 comeback averaged 20.9M viewers, the most-watched Game 4 since 1998. The series is now on pace to become the most-viewed NBA Finals since Jordan’s Last Dance—proof that live sports still bring people together in extraordinary ways
Another record-setting audience for the '26 #NBAFinals as ABC drew an audience of 20.9M 👏
🏀 Largest NBA Finals Game 4 audience since '98
🏀 Most-watched NBA Finals Game 4 EVER on ABC
🏀 Up 123% from last year's Game 4
🏀 23.2M peak viewers
More: bit.ly/4osB5oz
Let’s put Knicks-Spurs Game 3 23.8M viewers into context
It was higher than the Game 3 audiences of four of Michael Jordan’s six NBA championship runs. Only the Game 3s of Jordan’s iconic 1993 and 1998 “Last Dance” were higher.
We are in historic, historic territory
Record-setting audience of 23.8M tuned in for the '26 #NBAFinals Game 3 on ABC & ESPN 👏
🏀 Largest NBA Finals Game 3 audience since '98
🏀 Most-watched NBA Finals Game 3 EVER on ABC & ESPN
🏀 Up 159% from last year's Game 3
🏀 26.3M peak viewers
More: bit.ly/3Qgb6UO
Men’s College Basketball is on fire at this point. On Monday Houston/Kansas drew 2M & Louisville/North Carolina drew 1.7M.
Big Monday, up +86% YoY.
The freshman class paired with a highly ranked Big 12 have really supercharged ratings.
On Saturday viewers watched 1.9 billion minutes of men’s college basketball across 19 live games – a single-day regular season record for ESPN. Growth was driven by Michigan/Duke at 4.3M & Arizona/Houston at 2.4M. Great momentum for the sport during a Winter Olympics weekend.
This past Saturday, viewers tuned in for a HISTORIC day of #NCAAMBB
🏀 @umichbball-@DukeMBB | 4.3M avg. viewers
🏀 @ArizonaMBB-@UHCougarMBK | 2.4M avg. viewers
🏀 ESPN’s most-consumed day of regular season men's college basketball on record (1.9B minutes watched)
Fellow Christ the King alumni showed what New York basketball is all about last night #ctkbasketball
Flora Kelly retweeted
The @UNC_Basketball vs. @DukeMBB game on Saturday night drew 3.5 million viewers on ESPN, which is the best for the regular season matchup since Coach K's finale in March 2022.
Also ESPN's best regular season game in 4 years
Flora Kelly retweeted
This past weekend's '26 NHL #StadiumSeries DELIVERED!
🏒 Most-viewed #NHL reg. season game EVER on cable
🏒 Most-viewed Stadium Series on cable
🏒 ESPN's most-viewed NHL reg. season game on record
More: bit.ly/4qQ0OaW
Sabalenka, Alcaraz, Djokovic, Sinner, Gauff, Anisimova, Pegula & Shelton are fueling tennis’s momentum.
Australian Open quarterfinals were the most-watched in nine years. Star power + depth matters.
2026 #AusOpen Quarterfinal action on ESPN & ESPN2 was the most-watched in 9 years
🎾 418K viewers, up 64% YoY
Every snowstorm brings the same assumption: “PUT will be up, ratings will follow.” This weekend says otherwise. OOH matters more than ever — and it’s why Friday Prime has quietly worked for us. Time to stop revisit viewing assumptions
NFL has least-watched conference championship Sunday since 2021
sportsbusinessjournal.com/Ar…
Flora Kelly retweeted
Vance from Georgia tells @finebaum that a tree fell through his house into his bedroom 10 minutes ago.
When asked why he decided to stay on the line, Vance says there was nothing he could immediately do about it, and assures us that he and his dogs are OK.
"I was on hold and thought, 'Well, what are you going to do? There's nothing you can do this second.'"
Unfazed, Vance goes ahead asks Paul a question about LSU's transfer portal class.
I agree with Mike on a lot, but I don’t think one title defines “product quality.”
Parity matters. The SEC delivers it: more double-ranked matchups in the regular season (23 vs 12) and significantly closer games (13.5 MOV vs 19.9 elsewhere).
That’s the weekly product.
