The NBA Draft Lottery had its smallest audience in seven years. In other news, the NHRA scored its largest audience in at least 14 years, and TNT’s The Dunk King topped all non-NBA sporting events on Monday night.
NBA Draft Lottery Hits Seven-Year Low
- The 2016 NBA Draft Lottery had 2.7 million viewers on ESPN Tuesday night, down 23% from last year (3.6M), down 18% from 2014 (3.4M), and the smallest audience for the event since 2009 (2.5M). The six-year low marks a reversal from the previous two years, when viewership was the highest since 2003.
NHRA Hits New Viewership High After NASCAR
- NHRA racing from Atlanta earned 1.4 million viewers on Fox Sports 1 Sunday afternoon, up 163% from last year on ESPN (520K) and the largest audience for the series since at least 2002. The previous high was 1.3 million for coverage from Las Vegas last month. As was the case for the Las Vegas race, Sunday’s telecast aired directly after NASCAR Sprint Cup coverage.
TNT’s The Dunk King Tops Non-NBA Shows
- The premiere of TNT’s competition series The Dunk King had 1.8 million viewers following the Western Conference Finals on Monday. The show, which aired after Midnight and ran until nearly 2 AM ET, topped every non-NBA sporting event that night — including NBCSN’s Lightning/Penguins NHL playoff game (1.7M).
