An NBA Finals rematch between two of the most storied teams in the league gave TNT its third-largest regular season NBA audience in fifteen years.
Thursday’s Lakers/Celtics game earned a 2.9 U.S. rating and 4.714 million viewers on TNT, up 71% in ratings and 83% in viewership from the game on the comparable date last year (ORL/CLE: 1.7, 2.579M).
The Lakers’ win ranks as the third-most viewed regular season NBA game on TNT since the 1995-96 season, behind only Heat/Celtics on Opening Night (4.6, 7.348M), and Heat/Cavaliers on December 2 (4.2, 7.096M).
Thursday’s game topped the previous two Lakers/Celtics games on TNT. In February 2010, TNT drew a 1.8 and 2.861 million viewers for a Celtics/Lakers game that started at 10:30 PM ET, aired opposite the Winter Olympics, and did not include Kobe Bryant. In February 2009, the net scored a 2.7 and 4.311 million for a Laker overtime victory, which until this season was TNT’s top audience since the mid-1990s.
So far this season, six NBA games on cable have topped four million viewers. To put that in perspective, just one game on cable hit that mark last season, a Celtics/Cavaliers game on TNT Opening Night (4.021M).
Entering Thursday’s action, TNT was on pace for its most-viewed NBA season ever.
Also Thursday night, the Nuggets’ buzzer-beating victory over the Mavericks drew a 1.3 and 2.042 million viewers.
(Ratings/viewership from TV By the Numbers)
