TNT earned solid numbers for Cavaliers/Spurs Thursday night, but would probably have done even better if not for a poor lead-in.
Thursday’s Cavaliers/Spurs NBA regular season game drew 2.1 million viewers on TNT, up 35% from Lakers/Thunder last year (1.6M) and up 58% from Knicks/Blazers in 2013 (1.4M). The Cavaliers’ win ranks as the 15th-most watched NBA game on cable this season, and the 25th overall.
Given the overtime finish and Cavaliers G Kyrie Irving‘s 57-point performance, better numbers could have been expected. The season’s first meeting between the teams drew 2.6 million viewers on ESPN, an audience 24% larger than Thursday’s.
Even so, the game marked the 17th of the Cavaliers’ 22 national TV appearances this season to have a year-over-year increase in viewership. Of the remaining five, three could not be compared to last year, and only two had declines.
Keep in mind Cavaliers/Spurs had an exceptionally weak lead-in. Grizzlies/Wizards drew just 725,000 viewers earlier in the night, down 40% from Rockets/Bulls last year (1.2M), down 50% from Mavericks/Spurs in 2013 (1.5M), and the least-watched NBA game of the season (excludes NBA TV).
TNT has now aired the season’s three least-watched games, with two of the three — Grizzlies/Wizards on Thursday and Nuggets/Grizzlies on January 29 (733K) — added to the schedule to replace a Knicks game. Seven NBA games this season have earned fewer than one million viewers, topping last year’s full-season total of five.
(Thu. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily)
