A marquee, big-market matchup that lived up to the hype, Knicks-Lakers delivered one of the top cable audiences of the NBA season. Plus: TGL averaged half a million viewers for its debut regular season; mixed numbers for the NHL on TNT; and more.
Knicks-Lakers among top games on cable this season
Thursday’s Knicks-Lakers NBA regular season game averaged a combined 2.0 million viewers across TNT and truTV, up 61% from Celtics-Nuggets last year (1.25M) and the fifth-largest NBA audience on TNT Sports this season. Overall, the Lakers’ overtime win ranks as the eighth-most watched game on cable thus far.
Earlier in the night, Sixers-Celtics averaged a 0.6 rating and 1.09 million — down a tick and 5% respectively from last year’s equivalent Heat-Mavericks game (0.7, 1.15M). The Celtics’ easy win was blacked out in Boston.
In other action, TNT averaged a 0.7 and 1.2 million for Warriors-Knicks on Tuesday, a telecast that was blacked out in the Bay Area — up a tick and 18% respectively from Celtics-Cavaliers last year (0.6, 1.05M). The Clippers-Suns nightcap had just 793,000 viewers, down 34% from last year’s Suns-Nuggets game (1.20M). Both games aired opposite political coverage on other networks.
Over on ESPN, Wednesday’s Heat-Cavaliers game averaged a 0.6 and 1.04 million — flat and up 4% respectively from Clippers-Rockets a year ago (0.6, 1.00M). Figures for the Thunder-Grizzlies nightcap were not immediately available.
TGL regular season outpaces last year’s windows
The TGL regular season averaged 513,000 viewers, including 686,000 for eight primetime windows on the ESPN flagship network — up 21 and 12 percent respectively from last year’s equivalent windows. Tuesday’s regular season finale, which marked the season finale for Tiger Woods’ Jupiter Links Golf Club, averaged a 0.25 rating and 500,000 viewers — the most-watched TGL match in three weeks.
TGL had a median age of 51.9 during its regular season, younger than three of the four major sports (the NBA being the exception) and a full decade younger than LIV Golf. Adults under 50 comprised 42% of the league’s audience, matching the NBA and surpassing the other three major sports and LIV.
In other golf action, final round coverage of the PGA Tour from Palm Beach averaged 2.15 million viewers on NBC last weekend, down from the last time the event was held as scheduled two years ago (2.38M).
Mixed week for NHL on cable
TNT Sports averaged 389,000 viewers for an NHL tripleheader last Sunday, including 457,000 for Bruins-Wild — up 61% from Devils-Kings a year ago, despite being blacked out in Boston. Blues-Stars and Maple Leafs-Penguins bookended the tripleheader with 383,000 and 326,000 respectively.
On Wednesday night, a doubleheader of Capitals-Rangers (324K, -9%) and Maple Leafs-Golden Knights (178K, -38%) averaged 252,000, down 21% from a year ago.
Shifting to ESPN, Sabres-Lightning averaged a 0.20 rating and 390,000 viewers Thursday night — up from a 0.17 and 326,000 for Blues-Devils a year ago. Figures for the Sharks-Avalanche nightcap were not immediately available.
Plus: Unrivaled, CBB, NFL Combine, Rugby
— The new women’s basketball league Unrivaled is averaging 186,000 viewers entering its final week of regular season play, with that average rising to 218,000 excluding truTV-exclusive windows. Phantom-Lunar Owls averaged 185,000 and Rose-Laces 168,000 on Monday, while last Saturday’s Mist-Rose matchup averaged 148,000, the most-watched Saturday window thus far.
— Monday’s Kansas-Houston men’s college basketball game averaged a 0.6 rating and 1.1 million viewers on ESPN, flat in ratings but up 18% in viewership from Texas-Baylor last year (0.6, 971K). Wake Forest-Duke led-in with a 0.6 and 1.04 million, down 25% and 21% respectively from Duke against NC State a year ago.
— Coverage of the NFL Combine featuring the quarterbacks, wide receivers and running backs averaged 475,000 viewers on NFL Network last Saturday (481K including digital), up from last year’s 390,000 and the highest on record for day three of the event. Overall, the full Combine averaged 281,000 across TV and digital (+12%), the highest since 2020, when coverage aired on the ESPN networks, and the highest on NFL Network alone since 2017.
— In a perhaps unprecedented primetime over-the-air rugby telecast, FOX averaged a 0.20 and 371,000 for a Canberra-New Zealand National Rugby League match from Las Vegas. The audience would appear to be the largest for rugby on American television in nearly a year, since a Six Nations Rugby telecast on NBC last March.
