With the caveat that historical comparisons are difficult, ABC’s NBA Saturday Primetime got off to a good enough start in the overnights.
The Bulls/Cavaliers NBA regular season game drew a 2.9 overnight rating on ABC Saturday night, the second-highest of the season for a non-Christmas game on any network. Warriors/Cavaliers on Monday holds the top spot, with a 3.0 on TNT.
There are few worthwhile historical comparisons for Saturday’s game. One would have go back to December 2000 to find another primetime regular season telecast that did not air on Christmas night. Of ABC’s 13 non-Christmas games last season, all on Sunday afternoons, three had a higher overnight — Thunder/Cavaliers in January (3.4), Cavaliers/rockets in March (3.7) and Bulls/Cavaliers in April (3.4).
Compared to other Saturday night sporting events on broadcast television, the 2.9 overnight tops every primetime edition of MLB on FOX since July 2012 (not including postseason) and every edition of the UFC on FOX since its November 2011 debut (3.5). No Saturday night NASCAR points race had as high an overnight last year, but the exhibition Sprint Unlimited pulled a 3.2.
As one would expect, nine of ABC’s fourteen Saturday Night Football college games last season pulled a higher overnight.
Head-to-head, the Bulls’ win topped competing coverage of the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on NBC (2.5). Overnights for the Premier Boxing Champions on FOX were not immediately available, though it is highly unlikely that telecast came close. The NBA was not the top show of the night, trailing NBC’s late night comedy show Saturday Night Live (5.0).
(Sat. numbers from ESPN)
