ESPN delivered a total live audience of 6,924,000 viewers for its Thursday night telecast of Round 1 of the 2017 NFL Draft. Including streaming, this ranks as the fourth most-viewed Round 1 telecast on ESPN since the new primetime format began in 2010, and a seven percent increase over ESPN's audience for round 1 in 2016 (6,487,000).
The NFL DRAFT on ESPN was the highest-rated telecast on Thursday night among all the key male demos (18-34, 18-49, 25-54), as well as adults 18-34 and 18-49. Additionally, the telecast helped ESPN win the night among all networks in households, viewers and all key male and adult demosESPN's television and streaming audiences both increased from a year ago:
On television, the telecast peaked in the 9-9:30 p.m. ET half hour with a 4.6 rating and 7,779,000 viewers.
For the fourth consecutive year, Cleveland was the highest-rated metered market for Round 1 on ESPN, averaging a 12.6. Philadelphia, the host city for this year's NFL Draft, was the No. 2 rated market with a 9.1 - the highest rating in Philadelphia across all rounds of THE NFL DRAFT on ESPN/ESPN2 since the new primetime format began in 2010. Remaining top-10 metered markets for ESPN's coverage included Columbus, Ohio (9.0), Greenville, S.C. (8.7), Birmingham, Ala. (7.6), Dayton (7.6), Charlotte (6.9), New Orleans (6.9), Buffalo (6.8) and Norfolk, Va. (6.6).
The 2017 NFL DRAFT Continues on ESPN/ESPN2: ESPN's coverage of the 2017 NFL DRAFT continues from Philadelphia with rounds 2 and 3 this evening (7 p.m. ET on ESPN, 8 p.m. on ESPN2), and rounds 4-7 on Saturday, beginning at 12 p.m.
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