With the struggling Cavaliers suffering another defeat, the NBA on TNT pulled good numbers Thursday night. In other news, the NIT Championship was hit a three-year viewership high, and the Division II title game slipped from last year.
Cavs-Bulls Does Well For TNT
- Cavaliers-Bulls scored a 1.3 final rating and 2.0 million viewers on the NBA on TNT Thursday night, up 86% in ratings and viewership from Bulls-Rockets (0.7, 1.1M) and flat and up 1% respectively compared to Heat-Cavaliers in 2015 from 1.99M to 2.01M). It was the most-watched non-Warriors game on TNT since Knicks-Cavaliers in February (2.1M). The Rockets-Blazers nightcap had a 0.9 (-18%) and 1.4 million (-22%).
NIT Championship Most-Watched in Three Years
- TCU-Georgia Tech earned a 0.7 final rating and 1.1 million viewers in Thursday’s NIT Championship on ESPN, up 40% in ratings and 38% in viewership from George Washington-Valparaiso last year (0.5, 781K) and flat and up 6% respectively from Stanford-Miami in 2015 (0.7, 1.0M). The Horned Frogs’ 32-point blowout was the most-watched NIT title game since Minnesota-SMU three years ago (1.3M).
D-II Title Game Slips
- Last Saturday’s Northwest Missouri State-Fairmont State NCAA Division II basketball championship had 1.15 million viewers on CBS, down 3% from Augustana-Lincoln Memorial last year (1.19M) and down 2% from Florida Southern-Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2015 (1.17M). The 0.8 final rating was even with the past two years.
