Viewership declined again for the NBA Awards; the College World Series final opened at a seven-year high; also, numbers for the BIG3 and NHL Draft.
NBA Awards down for second-straight year
Monday’s NBA Awards earned 1.11 million viewers on TNT, down 8% from last year (1.21M) and down 38% from the inaugural edition two years ago (1.79M). Ratings were not immediately available.
Viewership was below average compared to regular season NBA games on TNT, which averaged 1.49 million. Of the 167 games on ESPN, ABC and TNT last season, 136 had a larger audience.
The telecast was no match for this year’s NFL Honors on CBS (3.42M) or last year’s Heisman Trophy Presentation on ESPN (2.93M). The king of the sports award show genre remains the ESPYs, which last year had 3.94 million.
The NBA Awards completed a season of declines for the NBA. Viewership fell for the regular season and playoffs, with the NBA Finals and NBA All-Star Game each hitting at least a nine-year low.
Michigan-Vandy opens with seven-year high
Michigan-Vanderbilt scored 1.88 million viewers in Monday’s Game 1 of the College World Series final, up 4% from Arkansas-Oregon State last year (1.81M), up 6% from Florida-LSU in 2017 (1.77M), and the largest audience for a Game 1 since 2011 (South Carolina-Florida: 2.25M).
Game 1 outdrew the NBA Awards by 70% in viewership, but trailed the awards show in adults 18-49 (0.42 to 0.44) and adults 18-34 (0.28 to 0.38).
BIG3 CBS debut trails last year’s equivalent
The season premiere of the BIG3 basketball league had a 0.5 rating and 794,000 viewers on CBS Saturday night, down a tick in ratings and 14% in viewership from last season’s first event on broadcast TV (0.6, 921K). Compared to last year’s season premiere, which aired on FS1, viewership jumped 359% from 173,000.
According to Sports Business Daily, the telecast was the least-watched primetime show on CBS since at least 1992. Additional BIG3 coverage had a 0.44 and 659,000 on CBS Sunday afternoon.
NHL Draft a mixed bag
Friday’s opening rounds of the NHL Draft earned a 0.23 rating and 365,000 viewers on NBCSN, up 4% in ratings but down 1% in viewership from last year (0.22, 368K). Viewership exceeded this year’s MLB Draft, which had 304,000 on MLB Network earlier this month.
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 6.25 a, b, Sports Business Daily 6.27]
