Premiere of Ice Cube’s Professional 3-on-3 League Ranks Among FS1’s Top 10 All-Time Basketball Telecasts
NEW YORK, NY – In the viewership equivalent of draining a 4-point shot, Monday night’s debut of BIG3, a professional 3-on-3 basketball league co-founded by Ice Cube and Jeff Kwatinetz, attracted 398,000 viewers on FS1, placing it among the channel’s top 10 all-time basketball telecasts.
Week 1 featured a thrilling slate of games that saw Allen Iverson win his coaching debut with 3s Company, Rashard Lewis go off for 27 points in the 3-Headed Monsters’ come-from-behind win, and DeShawn Stevenson clinch victory for the Power with a game-winner from long range, all in front of a crowd of more than 15,000 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. Following its impressive debut, the 3-on-3 league heads to Charlotte, not far from where Trilogy’s Rashad McCants helped North Carolina to an NCAA title in 2005.
Monday’s BIG3 telecast was a smash hit with younger audiences, drawing 250,000 viewers in the Adults 18-49 demographic, FS1’s second most-watched basketball game in the demo, with a median age of 38.4.
The BIG3’s FS1 debut posted huge gains for the channel year-over-year, resulting in a +310% increase in average Monday night viewership from 8:00-11:00 PM ET from July 2016 (vs. 97,000), and a massive +594% increase in the demo during that time period (vs. 36,000).
Among the local markets, the site of this weekend’s upcoming BIG3 event performed at a high level, with Raleigh-Durham recording the second-highest rating, and Charlotte coming in at No. 9. Richmond led all local markets, while New York, site of Week 1’s exciting opener, was tied for 12th.
BIG3 also performed well among online viewers, with an average minute audience of 5,013 on FOX Sports GO.
