This is a regular feature breaking down, minute-by-minute, the content that appears on ESPN's 11 p.m. edition of SportsCenter throughout the week. Graphic by Jim Cooke.
When last we met, the NHL outperformed the NFL, golf coverage dried up after the Masters, and the Worldwide Leader reveled in Red Sox Schadenfreude. What would this week bring?
Total time: 397 minutes
Time (minus commercials): 306.75
TIME DEVOTED TO INDIVIDUAL SPORTS
MLB: 81.25 minutes (26.5%) (last week 31.1%)
NBA: 59.5 (19.4%) (last week 21.7%)
NFL: 54.75 (17.8%) (last week 6.1%)
SportsCenter staples (things like the "Top 10," "Encore," "What 2 Watch 4," etc.): 46.5 (15.2%) (last week 14.6%)
NHL: 45.75 (15%) (last week 15.5%)
Other sports: 9.5 (3.1%) (last week 2%)
College football: 5 (1.6%) (last week 1.4%)
NASCAR: 3.75 (1.2%) (last week 2.6%)
College basketball: 0.75 minutes (.2%) (last week 3.9%)
Golf: 0.25 (.1%) (last week .8%)
MOST-COVERED TEAMS BY SPORT
New York Yankees (MLB): 20.5 minutes (6.7%)
Los Angeles Lakers (NBA): 18.75 (6.1%)
New Orleans Saints (NFL): 15.25 (5%)
New York Rangers (NHL): 11.75 (3.8%)
Arkansas Razorbacks (college football): 2.75 (.8%)
Virginia Tech Hokies (college basketball): .75 (.2%)
MOST-MENTIONED SPORTS FIGURES
Rather than break down the amount of time a specific athlete or figure was covered, we counted how frequently names were mentioned in the transcripts from the week. The 15 most-mentioned sports people for April 20-26:
Kobe Bryant: 37
Kevin Durant: 36
Albert Pujols: 32
Metta World Peace: 29
James Harden: 23
Andrew Luck: 22
Robert Griffin III: 22
Mickey Loomis: 22
Alex Rodriguez: 16
Trent Richardson: 13
Tony Parker: 13
Matt Kemp: 12
Josh Hamilton: 11
Lionel Messi: 11
Tyler Seguin: 11
CUMULATIVE STATISTICS: JAN. 7-APRIL 26
Total time: 7,140.25 minutes
Time (minus commercials): 5384.5
NBA: 1257.5 minutes (23.4%)
College basketball: 108.75 (19.3.%)
NFL:. 1019.5 (19%)
SportsCenter staples: 787.75 (14.6%)
MLB: 473.75 (8.8%)
Other: 428 (8%)
NHL: 255.25 (4.7%)
College football: 128.25 (2.4%)
Notes
Hockey's impressive streak continues: The NHL picked up another 45.75 minutes of SportsCenter coverage this week. It's the second consecutive week hockey has gotten at least 15 percent of the available airtime.
New York is popular: With the Yankees and Rangers taking the top spots among MLB and NHL teams this week, New York has achieved a weekly top spot in all four major sports, the first city to do so in 2012. So yes, being in a major market near Bristol helps your chances of making the news. Crazy, right?
ESPN didn't go overboard covering the draft: Perhaps it's because they already exhausted the topic over the past month, but ESPN spent a little less than 40 of the NFL's 54.75 minutes on previewing and recapping the draft. That's less than six minutes a night on the flagship program. There's only so much time you can spend on the draft when we all knew where Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III would end up, but a lack of suspense has never stopped ESPN from overhyping an event.