The combination of Golden State and LeBron James remains a potent draw, even in the preseason.
Wednesday’s Warriors-Lakers NBA preseason game earned a 1.3 rating and 1.98 million viewers on ESPN, marking the largest NBA preseason audience on record, regardless of network. The previous high for a preseason game on ESPN was 1.88 million for Kings-Lakers in 2003.
Ratings and viewership increased 117% and 128% respectively from last year’s comparable window (Rockets-Grizzlies: 0.6, 867K).
The Lakers’ win outdrew 122 of last season’s 171 regular season games on TNT, ESPN and ABC, including the previous meeting between the teams on ESPN in March (1.86M).
On an off night for the MLB Postseason, Warriors-Lakers was easily the top sporting event on any network. Across all of cable, the game’s 0.8 rating in adults 18-49 trailed only “American Horror Story” on FX (1.0).
Locally, the game had a 6.2 rating in the Bay Area and a 3.5 in Los Angeles. Las Vegas, where the game was played, turned in a 3.3 — not far off from the Golden Knights-Capitals Stanley Cup Final rematch earlier in the night (4.1). Birmingham, Ala., and New Orleans were the top neutral markets at a 2.6 each.
Earlier in the night, Pacers-Bulls drew a 0.7 (+29%) and 1.03 million (+40%). Last Friday, ESPN scored 836,000 for the special Warriors-Kings game from Seattle.
[Numbers from NBA, Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 10.11, Programming Insider 10.11, ESPN PR 10.11; additional info from David Schoen/Twitter 10.11]
