ESPN's three-day telecasts of the draft, with the first two nights in prime-time windows for the first time, was the most-watched NFL draft ever among viewers and second most-watched ever among households. ESPN has televised the draft for 31 years.

The 14 1/2 hours of televised draft coverage on ESPN on Thursday, Friday and Saturday averaged 3,717,000 viewers and 2,853,000 households, up 27% and 24%, respectively, from the last year, when the draft was carried Saturday and Sunday.

In 2006 the draft had more households (2,855,000) than 2010.

According to the NFL, 45.4 million viewers tuned in to watch at least a minute of the draft, up 16% from last year's record of 39.0 million. That count includes viewers on the NFL Network, which also carried draft coverage.

The Milwaukee market showed strong interest in watching the first round Thursday night - it ranked 10th among metered markets with a 7.4 rating, or 66,733 households - but the interest tapered off for second-night and third-day coverage.

For the 4 1/2 hours of the draft on ESPN2 on Friday night, Milwaukee was 19th among markets with a 3.0 rating, or 27,054 households. (For the one hour it was on ESPN, Milwaukee ranked 31st.)

For the more than seven hours of daytime Saturday draft coverage on ESPN, Milwaukee ranked 17th with a 2.1 rating, or 18,937 households.

The highest-rated live sports telecast in the Milwaukee market last weekend was the NASCAR Sprint Cup Aaron's 499 race Sunday afternoon at Talladega, which was televised by WITI-TV (Channel 6). It had a 7.8 rating, or 70,340 households.

The Cubs-Brewers game Friday night on FS Wisconsin had a 6.4 rating, or 57,715 households; Cubs-Brewers Saturday night on WMLW-TV (Channel 41) had a 6.2 rating, or 55,911 households; and Cub-Brewers Sunday afternoon on FS Wisconsin had a 4.3, or 38,777 households.

Game 3 of the Atlanta Hawks-Bucks series Saturday night had a 2.0 rating on FS Wisconsin and a 2.5 on ESPN, for a combined 4.5, or 40,581 households.