The NBA turned in one of its healthiest ratings of the season on Sunday, while NBA Saturday Primetime continues to plumb the depths.
Celtics-Lakers averaged a 2.3 rating and 3.59 million viewers on ABC’s NBA Sunday Showcase over the weekend, ranking fifth in both measures this season behind ABC’s three Christmas Day games and Blazers-Lakers on January 31. The Lakers have played in nine of the top 12 games.
Excluding Christmas, the Lakers’ win was the first game on ABC this season to exceed either a 2.0 rating or three million viewers.
Ratings still fell a tick and viewership 7% from the second Sunday Showcase game last season, Lakers-Sixers prior to the All-Star break (2.4, 3.86M). ABC did not carry a Sunday game on the same weekend of last year, when it cleared its schedule for the Academy Awards.
The game ranked second among weekend sporting events behind the competing NASCAR Cup Series race from Las Vegas (3.2, 5.50M). It topped NASCAR as the top sportscast in adults 18-49 (1.1 to 1.0), and ranked third among all programs behind ABC’s “American Idol” (1.4) and AMC’s “The Walking Dead” (1.2). It also topped weekend TV in adults 18-34 (0.8).
ABC did not fare nearly as well the previous day. Sixers-Bucks averaged a mere 1.1 and 1.71 million on NBA Saturday Primetime, down 48% in ratings and 50% in viewership from the fifth Saturday night window last year (Rockets-Warriors: 2.1, 3.42M) and down 56% and 58% respectively from 2018 (Thunder-Warriors: 2.5, 4.05M).
The Bucks’ easy win tied ABC’s lowest primetime NBA rating in three years, matching Sixers-Celtics three weeks earlier. Three of the past four editions of Saturday Primetime have plunged by at least a quarter from last year.
Elsewhere, TNT averaged a 0.8 (+14%) and 1.19 million (+9%) for Nets-Sixers and a 0.7 and 1.03 million for Rockets-Warriors on Thursday; ESPN averaged a 0.8 and 1.17 million for Pelicans-Blazers and a 0.7 and 1.02 million for Nuggets-Thunder on Friday.
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 2.25]
