Perhaps ABC would have been better off keeping the Knicks.
Sunday’s Rockets/Wizards NBA regular season game earned a 1.0 final rating and 1.3 million viewers on ABC, tying the lowest rating ever for an NBA game on broadcast television. The Rockets’ win matched Suns/Kings in March 2007, though that game had a smaller audience (1.34M to 1.26M).
Rockets/Wizards was the first NBA game on ABC during the NCAA Tournament since 2009. Not only did it trail both Elite Eight games on CBS by a wide margin, it also finished behind the Road to the Final Four pregame show (1.5, 2.1M). Five of the six lowest rated NBA games on ABC aired opposite the NCAA Tournament, including Suns/Kings in 2007.
ABC was originally set to go dark last weekend, but added Rockets/Wizards to replace a February 22 Cavaliers/Knicks telecast. It is almost certain that Cavaliers/Knicks would have earned a substantially higher rating, but dropping the game allowed ABC to pick up Cavaliers/Rockets on March 1 — the network’s most-watched non-Christmas telecast of the season.
Compared to other sports, Sunday’s record-low tops the lowest MLB rating ever on broadcast — a 0.8 for Yankees/Red Sox on FOX last September. Another MLB on FOX telecast drew a 0.9 rating the same month. Regular season college basketball routinely dips below a 1.0 rating on CBS and FOX, and the same can be said of the NHL on NBC.
Still, for a league that was riding high earlier this decade, the record-low is notable. Eight of ABC’s thirteen NBA telecasts this season have had less than a 2.0 rating, matching the total of the previous four seasons combined — not coincidentally, encompassing LeBron James‘ entire run with the Miami Heat. This season has had more sub-2.0 ratings since 2006-07 (10), matching 2007-08 and 2008-09.
(Sun. numbers via Sports Business Daily)
