Lakers-Clippers delivered the NBA’s third-highest Opening Night rating in six years.
Tuesday’s Lakers-Clippers NBA Opening Night game averaged a 2.2 rating and 3.58 million viewers on TNT, ranking third among Opening Night games since 2013 (12 telecasts). The 2017 openers — Celtics-Cavaliers (3.3, 5.60M) and Rockets-Warriors (2.6, 4.25M) — hold the top spots.
The Clippers’ win also ranks as the highest rated and most-watched NBA game to air on the same night as the World Series since Wizards-Knicks on TBS in 2001 — Michael Jordan’s Wizards debut (2.7, 3.88M).
It scored TNT’s highest regular season rating and viewership since January 2018 (Warriors-Cavaliers: 2.8, 4.68M).
Ratings increased 29% and viewership 32% from Thunder-Warriors in the same window last year (1.7, 2.72M). Compared to the aforementioned Rockets-Warriors game in ’17, the game declined 15% and 16% respectively.
The all-L.A. matchup averaged a 9.7 rating in Los Angeles, the market’s highest for a regular season game on TNT since 2013. By comparison, the Lakers’ opener on TNT last season — which marked LeBron James’ debut with the team — averaged a 6.9.
Earlier in the night, Pelicans-Raptors averaged a 1.4 and 2.25 million viewers — the smallest Opening Night audience (in the U.S.) since 2007 (Blazers-Spurs: 1.94M; Rockets-Lakers: 2.05M).
Toronto’s win, which was supposed to mark the NBA debut of Zion Williamson, declined 22% in ratings and 24% in viewership from last year (Sixers-Celtics: 1.8, 2.95M) and 58% and 60% respectively from the previously-mentioned Celtics-Cavaliers game in ’17.
This year marked the first time since 2016 that the NBA opened its season opposite the World Series. That year, TNT averaged a 1.7 and 2.87 million for Knicks-Cavaliers and a 2.1 and 3.48 million for Spurs-Warriors.
The competing Nationals-Astros Game 1 trounced the NBA with a 7.3 and 12.19 million on FOX, but that still represented much lighter competition than in ’16 (Cubs-Indians: 11.3, 19.37M).
While the World Series dominated the NBA in adults 18-49 — its 3.1 rating nearly doubling Lakers-Clippers (1.75) — the margin was quite narrow in adults 18-34. The World Series’ 2.1 rating in the demo beat Lakers-Clippers by just 10% (1.9).
[Nielsen estimates from Programming Insider 10.23, ShowBuzz Daily 10.23, Turner Sports PR/Twitter 10.23]
