WFAN's 'Carton and Roberts' maintains ratings edge over ESPN's 'Michael Kay Show'
Evan Roberts, left, and Craig Carton sit in the newly redesigned WFAN studio for "Carton and Roberts" simulcast on SNY, on May 24, 2021. Credit: Corey Sipkin
WFAN’s Craig Carton and Evan Roberts maintained their lead in the quarterly winter ratings book against ESPN’s Michael Kay in February, but the gap narrowed compared with January.
From 3 to 6:30 p.m., when the shows go head-to-head, WFAN ranked third among all stations in the New York market among men 25-54, with an average of 5.0% of those listening compared to ESPN New York, which was eighth at 4.4.
In January, Carton and Roberts had a 6.1-4.9 edge over Kay.
The February data, covering Feb. 3 through March 2, was released on Monday by Nielsen Audio and obtained by Newsday from an industry source.
This only is the second of three months in the full quarterly book, which is how the stations traditionally measure themselves. But it appears Kay’s show will be hard-pressed to win the book at this stage.
Kay won the autumn 2021 ratings period after losing the previous two to Carton and Roberts.
WFAN’s morning show featuring Boomer Esiason and Gregg Giannotti finished second in the market in February with a 7.2 rating. ESPN was 17th from 6 to 10 a.m. at 1.8.
The new midday show featuring Tiki Barber and Brandon Tierney ranked 12th at 3.0 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., and ESPN was 18th at 1.7.
All data includes both over-the-air and streaming numbers but not the shows’ TV simulcasts.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
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