1. This is one of those good/bad news days.
The bad news is that SI Media With Jimmy Traina was not Spotify’s top sports podcast in 2023. Thanks a lot, guys.
The good news is that I can brag about being so ahead of the curve.
It was a year ago in a year-in-review piece for SI.com that I named Travis and Jason Kelce's podcast, New Heights, the Podcast of the Year for 2022.
The show was still relatively new at that point, but I know my stuff.
The podcast’s growth was helped by the Chiefs playing the Eagles in last year’s Super Bowl. It also went to another level around the time the 2023 NFL season started and we learned that Kelce was dating Taylor Swift.
Just how dominant was New Heights in 2023?
According to Spotify, New Heights was the Top Sports Podcast Globally, the Top Sports Podcast in the U.S. and the Top American Football Podcast in the U.S.
What sticks out from that hat trick of victories is Top Sports Podcast Globally. Spotify didn’t pass along month-by-month data, but I’d be willing to bet good money that New Heights began to secure its global dominance over the past three or four months thanks to interest from Swifties.
The lesson here: Date the most famous pop star in the world and get an endorsement from Traina Thoughts and you’re gold.
2. Lots of football ratings news from the holiday weekend.
• Michigan–Ohio State drew a monster number for Fox on Saturday: 19.1 million viewers.
• Bills-Eagles on CBS Sunday became the most-watched non-Thanksgiving game of the NFL season, with 30.901 million people tuning in to watch Philadelphia’s thrilling overtime win.
• That comes on the heels of CBS landing 41.760 million viewers for Dallas’s blowout win over Washington on Thanksgiving, making it the second-most watched regular-season game in NFL history.
• Fox did great on Thanksgiving, as well, with the Packers-Lions game drawing 33.7 million viewers, making it the most-watched early Thanksgiving Day game on record.
• The only disappointing rating came when Amazon aired the first-ever Black Friday game. The game was noncompetitive thanks to the pathetic Jets, so people around the country were clearly not drawn into the game with 9.61 million viewers watching Miami’s 34–13 victory.
One nonfootball ratings note below:
CM Punk gave WWE quite a ratings boost for Monday Night Raw.
— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) November 29, 2023
The show drew 1.884 million viewers. That’s up 29% vs. last week and up 13% vs. 2022
In the 18-49 category, viewership was up 34% vs. last week and up 64% vs. 2022.
3. In an effort to draw interest in the NBA’s in-season tournament, ESPN and TNT will have their talent cross over for the semifinals games next Thursday, Dec. 7.
TNT’s Reggie Miller will call a semifinal game on ESPN with Mike Breen and Doris Burke, while ESPN’s Doc Rivers will call the other semifinal game with Kevin Harlan and Candace Parker.
In addition, TNT’s Inside the NBA team of Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal will appear on ESPN’s NBA Countdown. The NBA Countdown team (Malika Andrews, Stephen A. Smith, Michael Wilbon, Bob Myers and Adrian Wojnarowski) will then appear on TNT’s Inside the NBA pregame show.
4. We’re in that time of the year, unfortunately, when the “Bad Beats” in college football are dwindling down. But here is this week’s segment.
Bad Beats
— Stanford Steve (@StanfordSteve82) November 28, 2023
Week 13 pic.twitter.com/GIvGjEMgwE
5. Great question here by Howard Stern, who asked Eagles superfan Bradley Cooper on his Monday SiriusXM show if the actor would rather have Philly win the Super Bowl this season or win a Best Actor Academy Award for his upcoming movie.
6. A new SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast will come out early tomorrow morning with Mike Tirico.
Here are recent SI Media podcast episodes you should catch up on.
• NFL VP of broadcast planning Mike North
• Ian Eagle
• RGIII and Peter Schrager
• Dan Patrick
• Bill Simmons
• Joe Buck and Troy Aikman
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated’s YouTube channel.
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 74th birthday to wrestling legend Jerry “The King” Lawler.
Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
