The Bulls’ upset bid is moving the needle early in the NBA Playoffs.
Tuesday’s Bulls-Celtics NBA Playoffs Game 2 earned 3.4 million viewers on TNT, up 76% from Celtics-Hawks last year (1.9M) and up 1% from Celtics-Cavaliers in ’15 (3.3M). Ratings were not immediately available.
Viewership has now increased more than 70% for the first two Bulls-Celtics games, with Sunday’s Game 1 up 73%. No other game has increased more than 29%.
The Bulls win ranked second for the night on television in adults 18-49 (1.4), trailing only NBC’s The Voice (1.8). Keep in mind Tuesday was a relatively light night in TV; Pacers-Cavaliers did better in the demo the previous night (1.5) but ranked only fourth.
In other action, Jazz-Clippers had 3.0 million (-1%) and Bucks-Raptors 539,000 on NBA TV (+2%).* The latter telecast was blacked out in home market Milwaukee, with local coverage on Fox Sports Wisconsin earning a 7.8 rating — a record for the Bucks on the network.
On Monday, Pacers-Cavaliers Game 2 had a 2.3 final rating and 3.6 million viewers — up 15% in ratings and 12% in viewership from Mavericks-Thunder last year (2.0, 3.2M) and up a tick and 11% respectively from Bucks-Bulls in 2015 (2.2, 3.2M). The Grizzlies-Spurs nightcap had a 2.0 (-29%) and 3.2 million (-28%), with the caveat that last year’s comparable game involved the Warriors. Compared to Game 2 of the same series last year, ratings increased a tick and viewership 4%.
* Bucks-Raptors is compared to NBA TV’s first game of last year’s playoffs, Pacers-Raptors on a Monday night. The network did not carry a Tuesday night game last year.
