The Golden State Warriors’ march to 73 wins delivered big numbers both nationally and locally.
Wednesday’s Grizzlies/Warriors NBA regular season finale earned a 2.3 final rating and 3.6 million viewers on ESPN, up 156% in ratings and 185% in viewership from Pacers/Grizzlies last year (0.9, 1.3M) and the most-watched regular season game on cable, excluding Christmas, since Cavaliers/Bulls on ESPN in October 2014 (3.9M).
Golden State’s record-setting 73rd win of the season, which peaked with 4.2 million viewers from 11:15-11:30 PM ET, ranks eighth for the season in viewership regardless of day or network. The Warriors played in seven of the top ten games and 10 of the top 17.
National figures do not include the Bay Area, where ESPN’s broadcast was blacked out. Coverage on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area delivered a whopping 23.22 rating, which the network says is the highest ever for an NBA game on any regional sports network. Including the other major sports, only one other regular season game on an RSN has had a higher rating — Mariners/Angels on FSN Northwest in 1997 (25.3). Local ratings peaked at a 28.57 from 6:45-7 PM PT.
The 23.22 rating, the highest in the Bay Area since the Oscars in February, translates into approximately a 0.5 national rating. That would bring the combined local and national total to around 2.8.
While the local numbers approached critical mass, national figures would likely have been higher had ratings not been cannibalized by Kobe Bryant‘s final game on ESPN2 (2.1, 3.5M). Had there been no competition, and had ESPN’s coverage not been blacked out in the Bay Area, it is almost certain that the network would have exceeded its best-ever regular season rating of 3.1 for Lakers/Rockets in 2003.
Combined, the ESPN, ESPN2 and CSN broadcasts added up to an approximate 4.8 rating.
(Wed. numbers from ESPN Media Zone, NBC Sports, Programming Insider)
