Though college basketball took center stage over the weekend, the NBA on ABC had a massive increase in overnight ratings thanks to the Celtics/Lakers rivalry.
Sunday’s Celtics/Lakers NBA regular season game earned a 3.2 overnight rating on ABC, up 88% from last year’s comparable game (ORL/PHX: 1.7), and up 7% from the comparable game in 2010 (BOS/CLE: 3.0).
The 3.2 overnight is the highest for an NBA game on Selection Sunday since Knicks/Lakers on NBC in 2002 (3.8), a game that began at 6:15 PM ET.
With that said, the 3.2 overnight is also the second-lowest of the season for an NBA game on ABC, ahead of only Bulls/Celtics in February (3.1).
The 3.2 is also the lowest for any Celtics/Lakers game on ABC (four regular season telecasts), trailing a 5.0 last season (January 2011), a 4.4 in the 2009-10 season (January 2010) and a 6.0 in the 2008-09 season (Christmas Day 2008).
(Sunday’s overnight rating obtained from ESPN)
