One of the simplest cures for the NBA’s early season ratings slump is having Stephen Curry in the lineup.
Wednesday’s Warriors-Celtics NBA regular season game averaged a 1.2 rating and 2.14 million viewers on ESPN, marking the most-watched NBA game in the two weeks since Opening Night and an increase of 30% from Spurs-Knicks in the same window last year (1.65M).
The Warriors’ win, which peaked with 2.51 million viewers in the 9:45 PM ET quarter-hour, also marked an increase of 77% from the average of ESPN games the first two weeks this season (1.21M).
It is no secret that the NBA is off to a slow start this season. The ESPN average of 1.21 million in the first two weeks marked a 34% decline from the comparable point last year (1.84M). TNT games are down a narrower 14% over the first two weeks (from 2.1 to 1.8 million), but that is with a smaller sample size of six games — of which Opening Night, which posted a modest increase over last year, constitutes a third.
Not counting NBA TV, Warriors-Celtics marked Curry’s first nationally televised game of the season, as he missed Golden State’s matchup with New Orleans on TNT the prior week. The Warriors, who missed the playoffs last season, were left off of the NBA’s opening week schedule.
As for the league’s other major draw, LeBron James has played only two games on national TV thus far — both in Opening Week. At the same point of last season, James and Curry had combined to play in twice as many games (six).
Turning to the rest of the league, the absence of key stars has been a factor in at least some of the shortfall. Wednesday’s Sixers-Clippers nightcap, pitting possibly the two teams most associated with “load management,” averaged 1.19 million viewers, down 36% from last year’s comparable Warriors-Nuggets game (1.85M). That dragged the overall average for Wednesday’s doubleheader to 1.66 million, down 5% from 1.75 million on the same night last year.
Beyond the composition of the schedule, the league has also faced greater competition this season than last. The presidential election was far less of a draw than four years ago, but still provided steeper competition than would be typical in a non-election year. The World Series this year featured a Dodgers-Yankees matchup that, if short-lived, still generated much larger audiences than last year’s record-low Rangers-Diamondbacks matchup.
With the season only weeks old, there is no real sense of concern regarding the early performance. The schedule itself — from a greater number of Lakers and Warriors games to ABC simulcasting all five Christmas Day games this season — could well be enough to ensure that the overall regular season average finishes either up from last year or at least within range.
