First Take took 4 of the top 5 spots with Sunday’s Fantasy Show taking the other. First Take has plenty of haters, but…if numbers never lie (as opposed to His & Hers which was formerly Numbers Never Lie and still listed as such in the table below)…
Besides the relatively great viewership, First Take has something else going for it: its live telecast chews up two hours with the encore chewing up another two with relatively decent numbers. Shows averaging 400K over two hours is more valuable than a show averaging 400K for 30 minutes to an hour.
Besides being on the deuce, Olbermann and OTL have an additional hill to climb. Olbermann goes head-to-head with the mothership’s second most-watched talker Around the Horn, and OTL faces off directly against ESPN’s top talker Pardon The Interruption. But I think this gives both shows some freedom to focus on whatever they want regardless of ratings. In recent days Olbermann has started the show with topics ranging from NHL to soccer to horse racing.
Here’s the viewership data for ESPN2’s talk shows for last week. Actual sporting events, SportsCenters and repeats of talkers from ESPN (like PTI and Around the Horn) have been stripped out.
| Show | Network | Day | Time | Viewers (000) |
| FIRST TAKE L | ESP2 | Tue | 10:00A-12:00P | 495 |
| FIRST TAKE L | ESP2 | Fri | 10:00A-12:00P | 448 |
| FANTASY SHOW L | ESP2 | Sun | 11:00A-01:00P | 439 |
| FIRST TAKE L | ESP2 | Mon | 10:00A-12:00P | 438 |
| FIRST TAKE L | ESP2 | Thu | 10:00A-12:00P | 419 |
| NUMBERS NEVER LIE L | ESP2 | Mon | 12:00P-01:00P | 395 |
| NUMBERS NEVER LIE L | ESP2 | Tue | 12:00P-01:00P | 375 |
| FIRST TAKE L | ESP2 | Wed | 10:00A-12:00P | 332 |
| HIGHLY QUESTIONABLE | ESP2 | Mon | 04:00P-04:30P | 331 |
| MIKE & MIKE IN THE MORN L | ESP2 | Tue | 08:00A-10:00A | 319 |
| NUMBERS NEVER LIE L | ESP2 | Fri | 12:00P-01:00P | 306 |
| NUMBERS NEVER LIE L | ESP2 | Thu | 12:00P-01:00P | 293 |
| FIRST TAKE | ESP2 | Thu | 01:00P-03:00P | 287 |
| MIKE & MIKE IN THE MORN L | ESP2 | Fri | 06:00A-10:00A | 285 |
| FIRST TAKE | ESP2 | Tue | 01:00P-03:00P | 272 |
| NUMBERS NEVER LIE L | ESP2 | Wed | 12:00P-01:00P | 270 |
| COLINS NEW FTBL SHOW L | ESP2 | Sun | 09:00A-10:00A | 269 |
| SPORTSNATION L | ESP2 | Tue | 03:00P-04:00P | 268 |
| HIGHLY QUESTIONABLE | ESP2 | Tue | 04:00P-04:30P | 258 |
| MIKE & MIKE IN THE MORN L | ESP2 | Thu | 06:00A-10:00A | 247 |
| FIRST TAKE | ESP2 | Mon | 01:00P-02:00P | 237 |
| FIRST TAKE | ESP2 | Wed | 01:00P-02:25P | 230 |
| MIKE & MIKE IN THE MORN L | ESP2 | Mon | 06:00A-10:00A | 228 |
| MIKE & MIKE IN THE MORN L | ESP2 | Wed | 06:00A-10:00A | 210 |
| E:60 | ESP2 | Thu | 05:00A-06:00A | 207 |
| OTL SPECIAL L | ESP2 | Tue | 07:00P-08:00P | 200 |
| HIGHLY QUESTIONABLE | ESP2 | Wed | 04:31P-05:00P | 197 |
| YOU HERD ME WITH COLIN | ESP2 | Mon | 04:30P-05:00P | 195 |
| MIKE AND MIKES NFL RANK | ESP2 | Wed | 12:30A-01:00A | 176 |
| OLBERMANN L | ESP2 | Mon | 05:00P-05:30P | 173 |
| SPORTSNATION L | ESP2 | Mon | 03:00P-04:00P | 173 |
| SPORTSNATION | ESP2 | Wed | 06:00P-06:30P | 168 |
| YOU HERD ME WITH COLIN | ESP2 | Tue | 04:30P-05:00P | 161 |
| OLBERMANN L | ESP2 | Tue | 05:00P-05:30P | 155 |
| FIRST TAKE | ESP2 | Fri | 01:00P-02:30P | 146 |
| OTL SPECIAL | ESP2 | Tue | 02:44A-03:30A | 143 |
| OLBERMANN L | ESP2 | Wed | 05:00P-05:30P | 134 |
| OLBERMANN L | ESP2 | Fri | 05:01P-05:30P | 125 |
| OTL – FIRST REPORT L | ESP2 | Mon | 05:30P-06:00P | 117 |
| OTL – FIRST REPORT L | ESP2 | Tue | 05:30P-06:00P | 108 |
| OTL – FIRST REPORT L | ESP2 | Fri | 05:30P-06:00P | 90 |
| OLBERMANN L | ESP2 | Thu | 05:00P-05:30P | 87 |
| OTL – FIRST REPORT L | ESP2 | Wed | 05:30P-06:00P | 86 |
| OTL – FIRST REPORT L | ESP2 | Thu | 05:30P-06:00P | 60 |