Comparisons to last year’s Lakers-Warriors series remain unflattering, but the NBA held up better on Thursday than on Tuesday.
Thursday’s Mavericks-Thunder second round NBA playoff Game 2 averaged 4.52 million viewers on ESPN, down 38% from Lakers-Warriors last year (7.35M), but still the top sportscast of the day. The 38% decline actually marked an improvement from Game 1, which declined 50% from last year’s star-studded pairing of LeBron James’ Lakers and Stephen Curry’s Warriors.
Cavaliers-Celtics Game 2 led in with 4.17 million, placing second for the day. Both games increased double digits over Game 1 of the respective series on Tuesday night (3.51 and 3.68 million).
Shifting to the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, Rangers-Hurricanes Game 3 averaged a combined 1.75 million across TNT (1.49M) and truTV (254K), up 20% from Panthers-Maple Leafs last year (1.46M). Avalanche-Stars led out with 1.24 million (TNT: 862K; truTV: 377K), down 9% from Kraken-Stars a year ago (1.36M).
In golf, opening round coverage of the PGA Tour Charlotte tournament averaged 318,000 on Golf Channel — down from 355,000 last year. An Astros-Yankees Major League Baseball game drew 198,000 on MLB Network, preceded by a regional matinee at 134,000, while FS1 drew a mere 93,000 for a Royals-Angels game. MLB on FS1 trailed the Georgia-South Carolina college baseball game on ESPN2 (102K). The Big Ten softball tournament topped out at 64,000 for Maryland-Michigan.
Thursday, May 9 sports ratings
Updated chart:
Original chart below:
