Lakers-Nuggets, Draft Lottery, hit viewership highs

The NBA scored a pair of multi-year viewership highs Tuesday for Game 1 of the conference finals and the draft lottery.

Tuesday’s Lakers-Nuggets NBA Western Conference Finals Game 1 averaged 7.36 million viewers on ESPN (7.13M) and ESPN2 (234K), up 13% from Mavericks-Warriors on TNT last year (6.52M) and the most-watched conference final opener in five years — since Warriors-Rockets on TNT in 2018 (8.90M). Including Spanish-language coverage on ESPN Deportes (100K), the game averaged 7.46 million. Ratings were not immediately available.

Viewership increased 21% from last year’s conference final opener on ESPN (Celtics-Heat: 6.07M) and — as one would expect — easily outpaced the teams’ previous conference final opener in the “bubble,” a Friday night game in September that averaged 5.11 million on TNT.

Under the current NBA media rights deals that began in the 2002-03 season, Lakers-Nuggets ranks as the tenth-most watched conference final opener (41 total games).

(As with all multi-year highs, keep in mind that out-of-home viewing was not tracked in Nielsen final nationals prior to three years ago. All things being equal, games like Blazers-Warriors Game 1 in 2019 or Magic-Cavaliers Game 1 in 2009 — which both averaged 7.32 million without out-of-home included — likely had more viewers.)

Game 1 was the tenth of the playoffs to average at least seven million viewers, compared to three at the same point last season. It joins Games 4 and 7 of Warriors-Kings in the first round, Game 7 of Sixers-Celtics in the second, and all six games of the Lakers-Warriors series.

Earlier in the night, the NBA Draft Lottery — which saw San Antonio win the #1 pick that is expected to be used on French star Victor Wembanyama — averaged 3.24 million, up 50% from last year (2.15M) and the highest since Zion Williamson was the expected #1 pick in 2019 (4.43M).

Lakers-Nuggets was the most-watched program of the night on television and topped the charts in each of the key young adult demographics. The primary ESPN broadcast earned a 2.6 rating in 18-49, a 2.1 in 18-34 and a 2.9 in 25-54, up 16%, 14% and 17% respectively from last year’s Mavericks-Warriors Game 1. The game and shoulder programming accounted for the night’s top four programs 18-49 and 25-54 and the top five in 18-34.

(Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 5.17)

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Jon Lewis

Jon Lewis has been covering the sports media industry on a daily basis since 2006 as the founder and main writer of Sports Media Watch. You can contact him here or on the social media websites X (Twitter) or Bluesky.

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Comments 11

JR says:

3 years ago

I’m looking at primetime broadcast TV numbers, it’s a rarity these days for a non-sports program to crack 7 million viewers, and the majority of 5-6 million TV shows are on CBS with abysmal key demo ratings. So for ABC/Fox/NBC, the potential outright viewership concerns are no longer there, not a single reason for these networks to favor their own TV shows instead of carrying NBA conference finals.

If I were Adam Silver, one thing that must be included in the next TV deal is putting every conferential game on broadcast TV. If ESPN refuses to do that, then let NBC have those nights, TNT should make a similar deal like March Madness putting these games on CBS, or they would lose games to NBC as well. As cord-cutting continues, the return of every conference finals will benefit the league both in the short-term viewership and long-term reach to casual viewers, as well as building momentum for NBA Finals.
Samuel says:

3 years ago

These conference finals games have to return to broadcast in the next rights deal. I don’t remember TNT ever having a Game 1 back in the day. NBC always showed the openers, I believe. To think that only 1 out of a possible 14 games will be on ABC. NBC probably showed 10-12 conference finals games per season.
Dr Richard says:

3 years ago

We know that there is an added viewership component when games are played on Broadcast (ABC) vs. ESPN. Around 3-5 Million extra million viewers or so. Do you know if there is a difference in ratings between TNT games and ESPN games? Would a Nuggets-Lakers game have a different rating if it was on TNT?
- Jon Lewis says:
  
  3 years ago
  
  Good question. I’m tempted to think ESPN games are doing slightly better than TNT games. Might have to do with ESPN having more weekend games, which in the out-of-home era will generally deliver larger audiences.
Jordan S. says:

3 years ago

Hey i have 2 questions. Do you think that an NBA Playoff game on NBC could averages as much as ABC or even more? Also does anyone know how many viewers 1998 Game 6 Peaked at? Did it peak at 50 Million. I know everyone says it’s the most watched NBA game ever but i only see averages but never a peak. Is it possible it peaked at 60 Million?
- Jon Lewis says:
  
  3 years ago
  
  As to question one, I imagine so — if for no other reason than I imagine NBC would give the NBA better timeslots than ABC does. As to question 2, unfortunately I don’t have that info.
  - Jordan S says:
    
    3 years ago
    
    How much viewers do you think Lakers-Celtics averages if it went to 7 and what could game 7 average and peak if it was a close game in your opinion?
    - Jon Lewis says:
      
      3 years ago
      
      Good question. I would say maybe 14-15M in that scenario, but that’s a conservative estimate just based on where the NBA’s viewership has been the past few years.
    - Jordan S. says:
      
      3 years ago
      
      hmm, i think lakers-celtics would average 19 million or more. And i even think a close game 7 could have more viewers than 2016 game 7. That’s just me assuming tho. I also think NBC and ABC should carry the conference finals, maybe we could see conference finals average 10 million or close to it. I also think if NBC joins the nba just like ABC does with espn it should have tnt scoreboard and all that but idk if it’s possible. I also believe in 10 years, if they add more broadcast tv as they want, the NBA will pass the mlb by a lot in viewers. However, still not close to the NFL. I could see the NBA averaging 23 Million Viewers in finals since there are more superstars, and thats only going to increase. If they focus on marketing they could hit 25-30 Million. But they need to have more stars as known as LBJ-Steph. I also could see an NBA Finals game peaking at 50 Million or more viewers in the future. Maybe i’m unrealistic but the key to that would be more rivarly’s and more people as famous as steph and LBJ. Maybe unrealistic tho.J
Rich S. says:

3 years ago

If the series stays as competitive as it promises, I wonder if we could start seeing a couple of games with 10M+ viewers. Hopefully the two teams won’t just trade blowouts a la Lakers/Warriors.
- Jon Lewis says:
  
  3 years ago
  
  Doubt you’d see 10M unless it goes to a Game 7. That kind of number is hard to reach on cable these days.