Super Bowl weekend provided mixed numbers for the NBA on ESPN and ABC.
The Thunder/Warriors NBA regular season game earned a 2.4 overnight rating on ESPN Saturday night, up 85% from Clippers/Spurs on the night before the Super Bowl last year (1.3) and the network’s highest non-Christmas NBA overnight since Cavaliers/Bulls in October 2014 (3.1).
Compared to ABC’s NBA Saturday Primetime, the 2.4 overnight dropped a tick from Spurs/Cavaliers the previous week (2.5) and 17% from Bulls/Cavaliers two weeks earlier (2.9). The 2.4 also could not compare to Saturday’s NFL Honors awards show, which pulled a 3.3 on CBS.
On Sunday, Clippers/Heat earned a mere 1.6 overnight rating on ABC — the lowest for a Super Bowl Sunday NBA game on broadcast television since at least 1997 (and likely further back). The last time ABC aired a Super Bowl Sunday game, Magic/Celtics in 2011, the game had a 2.8 overnight.
The 1.6 is also the second-lowest for any NBA game on ABC in the past five years (regardless of day or timeslot), ahead of only a 1.4 for Rockets/Wizards opposite the NCAA Tournament last March.
The NBA’s Super Bowl Sunday fortunes have faded since ABC acquired rights. NBC managed a 4.6 overnight for Lakers/Mavericks on Super Bowl Sunday fourteen years ago, its final year carrying NBA games. It scored a 7.7 for a Jazz/Bulls NBA Finals rematch in 1998, the last year it aired the NBA and the ‘Big Game’ on the same day.
Overnights For NBA Super Bowl Sunday Games on ABC
| Year | Time | Game | Rating | Year | Time | Game | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 2:00 PM | Clippers Heat |
1.6 | 2008 | 2:30 PM | Mavericks Pistons |
2.0
|
| 2011 | 2:30 PM | Magic Celtics |
2.8 | 2007 | 2:30 PM | Pistons Cavaliers |
2.1
|
| 2010 | 2:30 PM | Magic Celtics |
2.1
|
2006 | Noon | Rockets Knicks |
2.1
|
| 2009 | 2:30 PM | Cavaliers Pistons |
2.3
|
2005 | 3:30 PM | Lakers Rockets |
2.4
|
(Wknd. numbers from ESPN, Sports Business Daily)
