Hi, I'm Flora | SVP @ESPN Research | bringing you thoughts on fans, sports & media trends
Joined October 2009
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Jun 12
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
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Jun 10
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
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Flora Kelly retweeted
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Feb 26
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.
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Feb 24
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)
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Feb 12
Fellow Christ the King alumni showed what New York basketball is all about last night #ctkbasketball
JOSE ALVARADO WITH EIGHT THREES OFF THE BENCH 😳
Knicks new addition fitting in nicely 🔥
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Flora Kelly retweeted
Feb 10
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
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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
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Jan 31
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
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Jan 28
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
Jan 28
NFL has least-watched conference championship Sunday since 2021
sportsbusinessjournal.com/Ar…
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Flora Kelly retweeted
Jan 27
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.
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Jan 23
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.
Having the best product on the field, which the B1G now obviously does, will help viewership but there are still going to be some meaningful structural advantages for SEC viewership.
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Jan 23
In a complex TV environment simplicity and lead-ins matter more
“Sankey attributes the SEC’s audience increase to its ardent fan base…..Stacking SEC double- & triple-headers on ABC also helped build audiences, as opposed to Big Ten games shown across different networks”
Jan 23
Two years since the two athletic conferences aggressively expanded, the SEC’s TV audiences are surging ahead of the Big Ten’s. on.wsj.com/4byoiNd
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Jan 22
30.1M viewers watched the National Championship Game. An amazing number period
Keep in mind that this number was reached without a Georgia/ Bama/ Michigan or Ohio State
And this number was reached on ESPN’s cable networks - no ABC distribution
Just let that sink in
The 2026 #NationalChampionship ft. @CanesFootball & @IndianaFootball delivered:
📈 30.1M viewers, 33.2M peak
🏈 2nd most-watched #CFBPlayoff title game
📺 2nd best cable telecast ever
🏆 Most-viewed non‑NFL sports event since '16 World Series Gm 7
🔗 bit.ly/4pXIyLE
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Jan 22
Houston/Patriots drew 37.9M a record-breaker for ESPN and a higher audience than the Sunday 3PM Divisional window delivered over the past two years.
Peak hit 45M between 5:45PM-6PM
ESPN's Divisional Round presentation delivered a historic audience‼️
More on ESPN's most-watched event ever: bit.ly/3LI8EUQ
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Flora Kelly retweeted
Jan 15
Just a reminder:
The Pop-Tarts Bowl (8.696 million viewers) was slightly higher than the Golden Globes last weekend (8.660 million)
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Jan 14
Now that MNF is in: this year’s NFL Wild Card weekend was up 13% across all networks.
Pitt–Houston pulled 29.1M viewers—one of ESPN’s most-watched Wild Card games in our history and up 15% YoY.
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Jan 14
If polling integrity matters—as the @nytimes rightly argues elsewhere—publishing “surveys” like this without qualifying them as unscientific is just plain careless and unnecessarily erodes trust on far more consequential polling they conduct. Do better.
Jan 12
The Athletic survey shows declining support for Pat McAfee on ‘College GameDay’ dlvr.it/TQJWSC
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Jan 13
Indiana–Oregon hit 21.4M viewers in the 1st half— the interest was clearly there. Blowouts happen
Indiana is now in the ratings conversation, growing audience by 67% this year. Miami grew 27%
Growing fan bases outside of the powerhouses is good for college football long-term
Friday's #CFBPlayoff Semifinal at the #CFAPeachBowl between @oregonfootball & @IndianaFootball delivered 18M viewers
🏈 One of the top 3 most-viewed @CFAPeachBowl games on record
🏈 Peak: 21.4M viewers
🏈 Through Semis, the @CFBPlayoff is averaging 14.9M viewers, on par YoY
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Jan 8
Hoping this doesn’t get lost with NFL and CFP news but it has been the best FCS Playoffs audience in 16 years. It ended with a great game.
The '25-'26 @NCAA_FCS Playoffs were ESPN's most-watched FCS postseason since '09-'10
🏈 #FCSChampionship game scored 2.3M viewers, the 3rd most-watched FCS Champ game EVER
🏈 #FCSPlayoffs averaged 1.4M viewers, up 8% YoY
More: bit.ly/49J71iK
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