Ratings have continued to crumble for ESPN’s new morning show, Get Up! Despite the millions of dollars the network has poured into it, the show has seen a steadily declining audience for its first week on the air.
The show’s debut hit a dismal 283,000 viewers on its opening day on Monday, April 2. Even kid’s cartoon Peppa Pig beat Get Up! in the ratings game on Monday. However, ratings have continued to slide each day until Thursday’s ratings came in under 200,000 viewers, Outkick the Coverage reported.
After Monday’s 283,000 viewers, Get Up!’s second day on the air fell to 243,000 viewers. Next, day three gave ESPN’s new morning extravaganza about an even 200,000 viewers (while Peppa Pig earned 750,000 viewers).
Then came Thursday with 198,000 viewers, according to a Sports TV Ratings Tweet:
198K.
— SportsTVRatings (@SportsTVRatings) April 5, 2018
Given the #s, think last week provides a clearer comp. Last Weds, the 7-10A SCs averaged 262K https://t.co/BQCn77qnYn
— SportsTVRatings (@SportsTVRatings) April 5, 2018
Calling it “the most alarming data of all,” Clay Travis pointed out that Get Up! saw viewership among the important 18-34 year old demographic decline by over 40 percent in just four days.
Travis also noted that members of the sports media have ridiculed Fox Sports 1’s Skip Bayless for his low ratings, and yet on Thursday, FS1’s Undisputed had higher ratings in the important target demo than ESPN’s Get Up!.
So @undisputed on FS1 had more male viewers ages 18-49 — the target demo — than WokeCenter AM had head-to-head yesterday.
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) April 5, 2018
It is not an auspicious beginning for ESPN, especially after signing its three hosts a nearly $15 million combined annual salary, not to mention the millions the cable sports network has already spent on building a New York City set, in addition to advertising for the show.
ESPN turned heads when it announced the coming debut of Get Up! as host Michelle Beadle, and Jalen Rose, were heard saying that social justice politics would feature as an important part of the new show. The quotes caused many to speculate that social justice issues would feature prominently on Get Up!.
The speculation that Get Up! would be more “woke” than sports rose to such a fever pitch that Mike Greenberg felt it necessary to come out to insist that social justice issues would not be a major part of the show.
However, for now, it appears no one is paying much attention to what Mike Greenberg and his co-hosts are talking about, politics or otherwise.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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