The latest matchup between LeBron James and Kevin Durant was a middling draw for ABC.
Last Sunday’s Cavaliers/Thunder NBA regular season game drew a 2.2 final rating and 3.5 million viewers on ABC, down 8% in ratings and 3% in viewership from Bulls/Heat opposite the Olympics in 2014 (2.4, 3.7M). There was no comparable game last year. Compared to the last time James and Durant played on ABC, January of last year, ratings fell 21% and viewership 16% from a 2.8 and 4.2 million.
Excluding Christmas, the Cavaliers’ rout scored the third-largest audience of the season — trailing only Warriors/Cavaliers on Martin Luther King Day (3.6M) and Bulls/Cavaliers in late January (3.9M). Cleveland has now played in six of the season’s nine most-watched games regardless of day, more than any other team including Golden State.
Though solid relative to this season, Sunday’s numbers are nothing to brag about. Only one of the Cavaliers’ four Sunday afternoon games last season had as low a rating or a smaller audience — a low-key matchup with the Kobe-less Lakers (2.2, 3.4M).
Head-to-head, Cavaliers/Thunder trailed final round coverage of the PGA Tour from Riviera, which had a 2.3 and 3.6 million viewers. It was also a lock to finish behind the Daytona 500 on FOX, though final numbers were not immediately available for that event.
In other action last Sunday, Lakers/Bulls delivered a 1.0 and 1.6 million on ESPN — up 25% and 46%, respectively, from Rockets/Suns in ’14 (0.8, 1.1M).
(Sun. numbers from Nielsen, Programming Insider)
