It did not quite hit the jackpot, but the NBA Draft Lottery delivered solid numbers for ESPN.
Tuesday’s NBA Draft Lottery scored a 2.0 final rating and 3.2 million viewers on ESPN, up 11% in ratings and 17% in viewership from last year (1.8, 2.7M) but down 17% and 9% respectively from 2015 (2.4, 3.5M).
It was the third-most watched Draft Lottery ever on ESPN, which began carrying the event in 2004. The three most-watched editions have come in the past four years.
The increase in viewership came despite a double-digit decline for the Spurs-Warriors Western Conference Finals game that followed.
For the night, the lottery tied for fourth on all of television in adults 18-49 (1.3) — trailing Spurs-Warriors (2.2), NBC’s The Voice (1.5) and NCIS on CBS (1.5). It ranked second for the night in adults 18-34, its 1.2 cruising past the top non-NBA program, The Voice (0.9).
(Tue. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 5.17, with additional info from Son of the Bronx)
