The Thursday night NBA Finals opener between the Golden State Warriors and the Boston Celtics was the least-watched Game 1 held in June since the San Antonio Spurs swept the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2007, some 15 years ago.
Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch, reports that Game 1 drew a 6.3 average of 11.9 million viewers, topping only the previous two Finals, which were held at odd times of the year for the league because of the pandemic.
“Pending any potential out-of-home lift, the Celtics’ comeback win declined 19% in ratings and 11% in viewership from Warriors-Raptors Game 1 in 2019, the previous Finals to take place June (7.9, 13.38M),” Lewis wrote. “It currently ranks as the lowest rated and least-watched Finals game involving Curry (29 telecasts), falling below Game 4 of the 2019 series (7.6, 12.79M).”
Lewis blamed waning interest for the ratings dip.
Gotta say, I’m a bit surprised by this. I thought these two teams would generate more interest especially if Steph’s star power. Not sure whether the close game in game 1 will get more people watching or if the general disinterest is already baked in.
Edit: Turns out the headline of the article is complete B.S. A little more research shows that the ratings are actually up from the past couple of years.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/tv-ratings-thursday-june-2-2022-1235158717/
The opening of the 2022 NBA Finals scored for ABC.
Game one of the series, a 120-108 win for the Boston Celtics over the Golden State Warriors, drew 11.4 million viewers — the biggest audience for the series opener in three years, per preliminary Nielsen figures (The Hollywood Reporter received what were labeled as final ratings from two sources). It’s currently up up 33 percent from last year’s game, which averaged 8.56 million viewers.
The audience for Thursday’s game also surpassed that of any NBA Finals game — save the deciding game six last year — in 2020 and ’21, pending updates....
The ratings boost for Thursday’s game is in keeping with increases for the NBA as a whole this season. Regular season games had their highest average viewership (1.6 million) since the 2018-19 season, and each round of the playoffs also reached multi-year highs (with the caveat that prior to last season, Nielsen ratings didn’t include out of home viewing).
Having two of the league’s most recognizable teams — both of which play in top-10 media markets — likely helped tune-in Thursday. The NBA Finals are also back in their regular early June home after two years of pandemic-related delays. Last year’s Finals began on July 6, a month later than usual; the 2020 series was played in September and October.
The NBA telecast was far and away the most watched program in primetime Thursday. A rerun of Young Sheldon on CBS (3.86 million viewers) was a distant second, while the CBS News-produced Her Majesty the Queen: A Gayle King Special drew 3.13 million.
Lebron accounts for two of the lowest rated series ever, even before social media platforms.
