Despite a blowout — and the Winter Olympics — the LeBron James-Celtics rivalry gave ABC’s NBA ratings another big boost.
Cavaliers-Celtics scored a 2.9 rating and 4.6 million viewers on ABC’s NBA Sunday Showcase over the weekend, up 53% in ratings and 62% in viewership from last year (Spurs-Knicks: 1.9, 2.9M).
Cleveland’s blowout win, which peaked with 5.4 million viewers from 5:15-5:30 PM ET, was ABC’s highest rated and most-watched Sunday regular season game since 2013 (Lakers-Heat: 4.1, 6.5M). That excludes Christmas.
Including NBA Saturday Primetime broadcasts, it ranks fourth over that span. Three Warriors games — vs. Oklahoma City last year (3.4, 6.0M) and Oklahoma City (3.2, 5.3M) and San Antonio (3.1, 5.2M) in 2016 — hold the top spots.
Keep in mind Sunday’s numbers were once commonplace on ABC. From 2010-14, when James played for the Miami Heat, 16 Sunday games had a higher rating and 13 a larger audience.
For the weekend, Cavs-Celtics was television’s top non-Olympic sporting event. Head-to-head, it comfortably topped final round PGA coverage on CBS (2.2, 3.5M) and NASCAR’s “The Clash” on FS1 (1.35, 2.3M). As one would expect, it trailed NBC’s competing Winter Olympics window in ratings (5.8), viewership (9.8M) and adults 18-49 (2.3 to 1.7).
Cleveland led all markets with a 20.5 rating, followed by Columbus (8.1). Boston tied for fifth with a 5.5.
In other action, Spurs-Warriors had a 1.8 and 2.8 million on NBA Saturday Primetime — down 47% in ratings and 54% in viewership from Warriors-Thunder last year, which marked Kevin Durant’s return to Oklahoma City (3.4, 6.0M). It was the least-watched Saturday Primetime game this season (four telecasts).
Golden State’s ho-hum win was just the second ABC game all season to decline (8 telecasts).
On Friday, T’Wolves-Bulls scored a 1.0 (+43%) and 1.5 million (+27%) and Clippers-Pistons a 0.8 (+14%) and 1.2 million (+7%) on ESPN. The big gains came despite competition from the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics.
[Wknd. numbers from ESPN, ShowBuzz Daily 2.13]
