As the NBA tries to turn around a multi-year ratings slump, the league’s national TV schedule includes a few changes of note.
ABC is scheduled to televise four Sunday afternoon NBA doubleheaders in the 2021-22 season, marking the first time since 2017 that the network has aired a regular season doubleheader outside of Christmas. Sunday afternoon doubleheaders were once commonplace on ABC, but the network largely abandoned them after adding its weekly Saturday night game in 2016.
[The full 2021-22 NBA TV schedule is available here.]
Last season, ESPN aired a number of weekend doubleheaders late in the season that largely outperformed its primetime games.
The first Sunday doubleheader is set for February 27, with the Knicks hosting the Sixers and the Suns hosting the Jazz. After that, ABC has doubleheaders scheduled for March 6 (Nets-Celtics and Suns-Bucks), March 13 (Knicks-Nets and Mavericks-Celtics) and April 3 (Mavericks-Bucks and Nuggets-Lakers), all airing at 1:00 and 3:30 PM ET.
In addition to the beefed up Sunday schedule, ABC has its usual slate of Saturday night games. In a rarity, the NBA Saturday Primetime slate is set to begin two weeks prior to Christmas with Warriors-Sixers on December 11. That would be the first NBA game on broadcast television prior to Christmas since 2001, when NBC added a pair of early season Wizards games after Michael Jordan’s comeback from retirement.
Overall, ABC is scheduled for 19 games next season, four more than last season and tied as the most in any season since 2005-06 (20).
Another notable schedule change is TNT moving its NBA doubleheaders to Tuesday nights during the NFL season. After the Opening Week of the season, when TNT has games scheduled on a Tuesday and Thursday, the network is not scheduled to carry another Thursday night game until January 6.
In another possible nod to the NFL, TNT is scheduled to air only two games on Martin Luther King Day, both before 8 PM ET — Bulls-Grizzlies at 3:30 and Bucks-Hawks at 6:00. Martin Luther King Day weekend coincides with the NFL’s six-game Wild Card round, and as NBC Sports reported earlier in this year, the NFL is considering a Monday night Wild Card game.
Other notable items this season include a number of 10 PM ET games hosted by teams in the Central time zone, including Bucks-Pelicans on ESPN December 17, Nets-Bulls on ESPN January 12 and Knicks-Bucks on ESPN January 28. While 9:30 PM ET starts are common for Central time zone teams, a 10 PM start (9 PM locally) is exceedingly rare.
ESPN and TNT are scheduled to combine for a quadrupleheader on the final day of the regular season, Sunday, April 10. ESPN would air a doubleheader at 1:00 and 3:30 PM ET, followed by TNT at 7:30 and 10:00 PM. This is the second-straight year the season is set to end on a Sunday.
