Here's a news story you won't hear anywhere else.
While the rest of the media is focused on NBA players kneeling and virtue signaling, they've apparently overlooked what viewers at home thing.
If the ratings are any indication, people at home don't want to be preached to about "systemic racism" from minorities who have achieved success in the top 1%.
The NBA season re-start drew an average of 2.9 million viewers on TNT.
The media is focusing on the kneeling and these large numbers, but they failed to compare it to the ratings from years prior.
In October 2019, the NBA opening night drew 3.58 million viewers on TNT.
That means that ratings for this years opener DROPPED 19 percent.
More details below:
An average of 2.9 million viewers watched the opening night restart of the NBA.
Typically, the opening night and the final game are the most watched games of the season.
To put this into perspective, Hannity averages 4.1 million viewers... EVERY night.
Tucker Carlson averages 4 million viewers.
And the Ingraham Angle averages 3.9 million viewers.
The opener for the NBA got 1 million viewers LESS at 2.9 million.
CNBC confirms NBA's 2.9 million viewers:
Two games that came down to the last possession, and a telecast filled innovation, helped the National Basketball Association record an average 2.9 million viewers on its opening night on Thursday. The season was delayed due to the Covid 19 outbreak.
Turner Sports’ broadcast of the Los Angeles Lakers’ 103-101 victory over the Clippers averaged 3.4 million viewers throughout the game, including on TNT and its TV Everywhere platform, according to the network. It peaked between 9:45 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET with an average of viewers 4.1 million viewers as sports fans watched Anthony Davis and the Lakers battle the Kawhi Leonard-led Clippers down to the final shot.
Turner did have to share coverage with regional sports networks as NBA seeding games are aired both locally and/or nationally.
The Utah Jazz’s 106-104 win over the Zion Williamson-led New Orleans Pelicans averaged 2.1 million viewers. The Pelicans blew a seven-point lead in the final seven minutes before Brandon Ingram missed a 25-foot 3-pointer in the last seconds.
Turns out the American people don't want to hear about "racism" from the most successful minorities in the nation.
NBA players have been able to climb the ladder of success because we are still the BEST nation for progress and equality for all people.
While 2.9 million viewers is impressive for most television programming, this was a 19 percent DROP from opening night in 2019.
Last year, opening night got 3.58 million viewers.
According to Sports Media Watch:
Tuesday’s Lakers-Clippers NBA Opening Night game averaged a 2.2 rating and 3.58 million viewers on TNT, ranking third among Opening Night games since 2013 (12 telecasts). The 2017 openers — Celtics-Cavaliers (3.3, 5.60M) and Rockets-Warriors (2.6, 4.25M) — hold the top spots.
The Clippers’ win also ranks as the highest rated and most-watched NBA game to air on the same night as the World Series since Wizards-Knicks on TBS in 2001 — Michael Jordan’s Wizards debut (2.7, 3.88M).
It scored TNT’s highest regular season rating and viewership since January 2018 (Warriors-Cavaliers: 2.8, 4.68M).
Ratings increased 29% and viewership 32% from Thunder-Warriors in the same window last year (1.7, 2.72M). Compared to the aforementioned Rockets-Warriors game in ’17, the game declined 15% and 16% respectively.
The all-L.A. matchup averaged a 9.7 rating in Los Angeles, the market’s highest for a regular season game on TNT since 2013. By comparison, the Lakers’ opener on TNT last season — which marked LeBron James’ debut with the team — averaged a 6.9.
Earlier in the night, Pelicans-Raptors averaged a 1.4 and 2.25 million viewers — the smallest Opening Night audience (in the U.S.) since 2007 (Blazers-Spurs: 1.94M; Rockets-Lakers: 2.05M).
This year's opening night should have ranked higher.
Why?
Because of social distancing and COVID-19, more people are at home watching TV.
TV ratings are up across the board. Streaming numbers are increased as well.
Despite more people than ever before turning to their TVs and devices for entertainment, the NBA opening night plummeted 19 percent.
Perhaps the business analysts at NBA and TNT should reconsider their virtue signaling.
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