A pair of middling teams with past-their-sell-by date stars generated historically low numbers for ABC.
Saturday’s Rockets/Bulls NBA regular season game scored a 1.2 final rating and 1.9 million viewers on ABC, the lowest rating and viewership ever for an NBA game on primetime over-the-air television. The previous lows were a much stronger 2.1 and 3.3 million for Spurs/Cavaliers in January.
That the game hit a primetime low is not necessarily notable. Up until this year, nearly all of the primetime NBA games on network television took place during the playoffs or on Christmas Day — not on ordinary Saturday nights during the regular season. It stood to reason when ABC announced its NBA Saturday Primetime package that one or more games would set a historically low mark.
Even with that caveat, the numbers were quite poor. The 1.2 rating is tied as the fifth-worst ever for any NBA game on broadcast, regardless of timeslot. Of the other games to earn a rating as low or lower, all-but-one aired opposite the NCAA Tournament.
Furthermore, the 1.2 ranks among the lowest ratings ever for any major sporting event on primetime broadcast TV. Four primetime editions of MLB on FOX have had as low a rating, as have three editions of the NHL on NBC and a number of college football telecasts on FOX and CBS.
Head-to-head, Rockets/Bulls edged the competing Louisville/Virginia college basketball game on ESPN (1.6M), but was no match for North Carolina/Duke earlier in the night (1.9, 3.2M).
(Sat. numbers via Programming Insider)
