Viewers tuned in en masse for an NBA game unlike any other.
Friday’s Blazers-Lakers NBA regular season game averaged 4.41 million viewers on ESPN, the network’s second-largest regular season NBA audience ever (dating back to 2002). Lakers-Rockets in 2003, the first meeting between Shaquille O’Neal and Yao Ming, holds the top spot (4.88M).
Excluding Christmas, Portland’s win was the most-watched regular season game on any network in two years (2018 Cavaliers-Celtics: 4.64M).
The numbers come with an obvious caveat. The game was the Lakers’ first since the death of Kobe Bryant in a helicopter accident five days earlier. The tragedy also claimed the life of his daughter Gigi, two other members of his youth basketball team and their parents, his assistant coach, and his personal pilot.
The Nielsen-measured audience includes the half-hour before game time, which included an emotional tribute to Bryant featuring performances by Usher and cellist Ben Hong and a speech by LeBron James.
In addition to the ESPN telecast, coverage aired locally in Los Angeles on Spectrum SportsNet. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Spectrum broadcast averaged a 4.51 local rating, its second-highest of the season.
There are few parallels in modern sports history to Friday’s game, or to Bryant’s death generally, rendering the numbers anomalous.
Bryant’s death has prompted scores of tributes in Los Angeles and around the world, and that has extended to television viewing as well. The large audience for Friday’s game came on the heels of ESPN averaging more than one million viewers for a rebroadcast of Bryant’s final NBA game.
Earlier Friday, Mavericks-Rockets averaged 1.53 million viewers — up 3% from Raptors-Rockets last year (1.49M) but down 1% from Rockets-Pelicans two years ago (1.54M).
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 2.3, Hollywood Reporter 2.3]
