Just like he did at Duke, Zion Williamson moved the ratings needle in his NBA debut.
Wednesday’s Spurs-Pelicans NBA regular season game, which marked the NBA debut of Pelicans rookie Zion Williamson, averaged a 1.6 rating and 2.36 million viewers on ESPN — marking the most-watched game of the season that did not involve the Lakers or air on Christmas Day. Including Laker and Christmas games, it ranks ninth.
San Antonio’s win, which peaked with 2.78 million viewers, increased 45% in ratings and 42% in viewership from last year (Pelicans-Warriors: 1.1, 1.66M) and 129% and 124% respectively from 2018 (Nuggets-Clippers: 0.7, 1.05M).
The game outpaced Pelicans-Raptors on TNT Opening Night, which was supposed to mark Williamson’s NBA debut (2.25M). It trailed Williamson’s Duke debut last year, which averaged a 1.7 and 2.85 million on ESPN. That was a Champions Classic matchup of bluebloods Duke and Kentucky.
The last NBA debut to generate as much attention was arguably LeBron James’ in 2003. ESPN averaged a 2.3 and 3.03 million for James’ Cavaliers against the Kings.
Anticipation for Williamson’s debut did little to help the first game of ESPN’s doubleheader. Sixers-Raptors averaged 1.15 million viewers, down 35% from last year (Raptors-Celtics: 1.78M) and down 23% from 2019 (Lakers-Thunder: 1.52M).
[Nielsen estimates from ESPN, ShowBuzz Daily 1.23]
