LeBron James‘ move to the Lakers has not resulted in any wins on the court, but the television ratings are a different story.
Saturday’s Rockets-Lakers NBA regular season game delivered a 2.0 rating and 3.36 million viewers on ESPN, marking the largest NBA regular season audience on ESPN since the final night of the 2015-16 season. That night, the Warriors’ 73rd win of the season had 3.65 million on ESPN and Kobe Bryant‘s final NBA game had 3.47 million on ESPN2.
LeBron James’ first home game as a member of the Lakers was the most-watched game of the NBA’s opening week. It edged Lakers-Blazers on TNT Thursday night (3.31M), James’ Laker debut. No other opening week game exceeded a 1.8 and 2.95 million (Sixers-Celtics on Opening Night).
The game was ESPN’s highest rated and most-watched program on Saturday, no small feat during the college football season. It built on its lead-in — Mississippi State-LSU in a top 25 matchup — by a tick in ratings (vs. 1.9) and 8% in viewership (vs. 3.11M).
Rockets-Lakers outdrew every regular season college football game in the same late night window (start time of 10 PM ET or later) since Oregon-Cal on ESPN six years ago (3.7M). Compared to Colorado-Washington State in the same window last year, ratings increased 150% (from 0.8) and viewership 141% (from 1.39M).
As noted previously, ESPN’s telecast had a 3.7 rating in Los Angeles. Local coverage on Spectrum SportsNet had a 1.4, bringing the combined total to 5.1. The local rating trailed the Dodgers’ competing NLCS Game 7 on FS1 (15.9) and the Lakers’ Thursday night home opener on TNT (6.9).
In other opening week action, Friday’s Warriors-Jazz game had a 1.4 and 2.27 million on ESPN — down a tick in ratings and 7% in viewership from last year (Warriors-Pelicans: 1.5, 2.43M) but up 27% and 21% respectively from 2016 (Warriors-Pelicans: 1.1, 1.88M).
Celtics-Raptors drew a 1.2 and 1.818 million earlier in the night, up a tick in ratings but down a fraction of a percent in viewership from last year (Cavs-Bucks: 1.1, 1.822M). Of the seven opening week games that did not involve the Lakers, it was the only one to post an increase in either measure.
On Monday night, Spurs-Lakers drew 674,000 viewers on NBA TV and Magic-Celtics 290,000. On the same night last year, Raptors-Spurs drew 217,000.
[Numbers from NBA, Nielsen via Programming Insider 10.23, ShowBuzz Daily 10.23]
