Saturday night was not all right for NBA games this season, but the league’s expanded Sunday slate has helped make up the difference.
ABC averaged 2.22 million viewers for its seven “NBA Saturday Primetime” games this season, down 21% from last year (2.82M) and the least-watched season of the series since it debuted in 2016. But viewership increased nearly as much for the network’s eight-game “NBA Sunday Showcase” slate, which averaged 2.56 million — up 20% and the highest since 2022-23 (2.85M). (The gains over the two intervening years are beyond the range that would be explained by Nielsen methodological changes.)
This season was the first since 2022-23 in which “Sunday Showcase” outdrew “Saturday Primetime.” With the Sunday gains helping to offset the Saturday declines, ESPN/ABC remains up 12% for the season overall to 2.0 million viewers.
The divergent trend extended into the season finales of both series last weekend. ABC averaged a 1.3 and 2.41 million for an overtime Nuggets-Lakers thriller on “Saturday Primetime” and a 1.1 and 1.98 million for Timberwolves-Thunder on “Sunday Showcase.” Viewership declined 12% Saturday night (vs. Knicks-Warriors: 2.73M) and increased the same amount Sunday afternoon (vs. Cavaliers-Magic: 1.77M).
There were some headwinds unique to the Saturday night window this season, including the multiple breaking news events that disrupted ABC’s coverage plans for the January 24 season premiere. Perhaps the biggest factor was the absence of Stephen Curry from Golden State’s three “Saturday Primetime” games. By comparison, the Warriors played only one “Sunday Showcase” game in his absence.
Also helping to pick up the Saturday slack this season is the league’s new Sunday package, NBC’s “Sunday Night Basketball.” That window is averaging a combined 3.7 million across Nielsen and Adobe Analytics, up 146% from last year’s equivalent Sunday night games on ESPN.
The latest edition, the Curry-less Warriors against the Knicks, was unsurprisingly the least-watched yet with 2.8 million on NBC, Telemundo and Peacock. (The Nielsen-only, NBC-only figures were a 1.3 and 2.2 million.) But whether on a combined or Nielsen-only basis, that was still considerably higher than ESPN’s comparable Thunder-Bucks game last year (1.39M).
Notably, none of the weekend windows delivered the top NBA audience of last week. NBC’s “Coast 2 Coast Tuesday” broadcast on March 10 — Celtics-Spurs in most markets and Timberwolves-Lakers on the West Coast — topped the charts both on a combined (3.6M) and Nielsen-only (1.5, 2.55M) basis. The combined audience was the largest for a “Coast 2 Coast Tuesday” broadcast this season.
Overall, NBA regular season games are averaging 1.78 million viewers across ESPN/ABC, NBCUniversal and Amazon Prime Video, per Nielsen (and Adobe Analytics for NBC games) — up 13% from last year on ESPN/ABC and TNT. Including NBA TV, viewership is up 30% across all national networks. (NBA TV is carrying fewer games in the new rights deal, meaning that it drags down the average less than in prior years.)
Officially, this year’s average is the highest at this point of a season in seven years. (Note that Nielsen did not begin including out-of-home viewing in its estimates until 2020, only began doing so in 100 percent of markets a year ago, and is six months into a new methodology that combines its traditional panel with “Big Data” from smart TVs and set-top boxes. Those changes generally skew comparisons to past years.)
In other NBA action, ESPN on March 11 averaged 1.15 million for Cavaliers-Magic and 1.12 million for Rockets-Nuggets — both down from last year’s equivalent windows, Thunder-Celtics (1.7M) and Timberwolves-Nuggets (1.4M). ESPN also drew 987,000 for Kings-Clippers following the ACC Tournament final, which overlapped with the final portion of Nuggets-Lakers on ABC.
