While the individual match-up never truly materialized, Sunday afternoon’s battle between Kobe Bryant‘s Lakers and LeBron James‘ Cavaliers gave ABC superb ratings.
The Lakers’ 101-91 win over the Cavaliers drew a 5.0 overnight rating on ABC, up 73% from a 2.9 for last year’s comparable Lakers/Heat game. Excluding Christmas Day games, the 5.0 overnight is the best ever for a regular season NBA telecast on ABC. The 5.0 is also the highest overnight for a non-Christmas regular season game since 2002.
To put the 5.0 in perspective, only one of last year’s NBA Playoff games prior to the Finals drew an overnight that high — Game 7 between the Cavaliers and Celtics. Additionally, the 5.0 for this regular season match-up is higher than the overnights for each game of last year’s Stanley Cup Finals as well as the final rounds of golf’s PGA Championship and British Open.
Lakers/Cavaliers finished as the second-highest rated sporting event of an eventful sports weekend, falling behind the NFL Pro Bowl on NBC. The game beat NASCAR’s Budweiser Shootout by 22% and the final round of the Buick Invitational by 138%.
Earlier in the day, the Spurs’ win over the Celtics drew an impressive 3.0 overnight, up 15% from a 2.6 for the same match-up in the same timeslot a year ago. Overall, ABC averaged a 4.0 overnight for its NBA doubleheader on Sunday, up 43% from a 2.8 last year.
Highest overnight ratings for regular season NBA games on ABC.
excluding Christmas Day games
5.0: Lakers/Cavaliers (Sun., 2/8/09, 3:30 PM ABC)
4.3: Spurs/Lakers (Sun., 4/4/04, 3:30 PM ABC)
4.2: 76ers/Lakers (Sun., 3/9/03, 3:30 PM ABC)
3.7: Spurs/Kings (Sun., 2/16/03, 3:30 PM ABC)
3.6: Lakers/Kings (Sun., 4/11/04, 3:30 PM ABC)
