A high-profile NBA doubleheader attracted solid, if unspectacular, numbers on ABC Sunday afternoon.
Sunday’s Lakers/Clippers NBA regular season game drew a 3.6 overnight rating on ABC, up 9% from Heat/Celtics last year (3.3), and up 20% from Nuggets/Lakers in 2011 (3.0).
Earlier in the day, Knicks/Thunder drew a 2.8 overnight — up 22% from Bulls/Thunder last year (2.3), and up 87% from Suns/Spurs in 2011 (1.5). The 2.8 is ABC’s fourth-lowest overnight of the season; three of the five lowest rated games have involved the Knicks.
Despite the increases, better numbers could have been expected given the quality of the match-ups. The Knicks entered Sunday’s game against the Thunder on an 11-game winning streak, and the Lakers are battling for the 8th and final playoff spot in the Western conference.
For some perspective, a comparably low-profile double-header on March 10 — Celtics/Thunder and Bulls/Lakers — drew almost identical overnights of 2.7 and 3.5, respectively.
* Sunday’s overnights are being compared to the first post-NCAA hiatus telecasts last year (April 1) and in 2011 (April 3). Because the NCAA Tournament moved one week later this year, the comparisons are thus to games that took place one week earlier in the calendar.
(Sunday’s overnights from Sports Business Daily)
