LeBron James‘ one-hour special drew a higher overnight rating than his final game for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
ESPN drew a 7.3 overnight rating for “The Decision” on Thursday night, a one hour special in which James announced his intention to sign with the Miami Heat. The special drew the highest overnight of the night on broadcast or cable, and the top overnight for any non-NFL program of the year on ESPN.
To put the numbers in perspective, Cavaliers/Celtics Game 6 on May 13 — what turned out to be James’ final game with the Cavaliers — drew a 7.1 overnight, the highest of the NBA Playoffs on cable.
In March, ESPN drew a 0.4 overnight for a two-hour edition of SportsCenter featuring Tiger Woods‘ first one-on-one interview since his marital woes became public. In 2009, the network drew a 0.9 for an edition of SportsCenter which featured Alex Rodriguez admitting to use of performance enhancing drugs.
Overnight ratings peaked at a 9.6 from 9:15-9:30 PM, when James announced he was joining the Heat.
Cleveland-Akron was the top market for Thursday’s telecast, with a 26.0. Columbus, OH, followed with a 14.2. Despite being virtually the same size as the Cleveland market, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale was well behind with a 12.8.
The telecast drew a 10.7 in Chicago, a 10.4 in New York and a 5.3 in Los Angeles.
(ESPN)
