When Barstool Sports announced a partnership for a television show with FS1, ‘Stoolies’ around the country hailed the news. But two weeks in, the show is hemorrhaging viewers to alarming new lows.
Earlier this month, the popular online sports website created by Dave Portnoy launched the morning show ‘Wake Up Barstool’.
That show aired in the same timeslot as the now-defunct FS1 staple ‘Undisputed’ – as well as the two programs that replaced it, ‘Breakfast Ball’ and ‘The Facility’. It also is going head-to-head against ESPN’s morning shows ‘Get Up’ and ‘First Take’.
First week numbers showed alarmingly low ratings. Week two was even worse.
The week of its Monday debut, the shows from Tuesday-Friday maxxed out at 20,000 views.
But in its second week of airing, the shows from Monday-Friday averaged only 12,000 viewers and sank as low as an anemic 7,000 total viewers on Tuesday.
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy is facing a ratings nightmare for his new FS1 show
‘Wake Up Barstool’ ratings fell as low as 7,000 national viewers in its second week on the air
The shows on Wednesday and Friday were not much better, drawing just 8,000 views.
While this show has lasted longer than Barstool’s last endeavor onto the airwaves (when female talent at ESPN threatened the company and led to the cancellation of ‘Barstool Van Talk’ after just two episodes), the numbers are worrying for Portnoy and Fox.
Portnoy has even admitted he’s not too satisfied with the product he’s putting out on air in his Monday appearances.
But the good news for him is that Monday appears to be the best days for viewers. The bad news is that only 23,000 viewers tuned in for Monday of Week Two.
According to Awful Announcing, the average viewership in the show’s second week is nearly 35 times lower than the average of what ESPN drew for First Take in just the month of August alone – at a time where there was no NFL or college football results to pad their rundowns.
Moreover, ‘Wake Up Barstool’ is on track to be the worst rated FS1 show in history. The second-week average of 12,000 viewers is even trailing the network’s broadcasts of Major League Pickleball by 3,000 viewers.
