NBA fans seem more excited about basketball’s return than bitter about the lockout, based on television ratings for the league’s delayed openers.
The five Christmas games on Sunday attracted large audiences, with the Bulls-Lakers match-up drawing the third-highest preliminary rating for a regular-season game on ABC. The 6.5 overnight rating trailed only a 7.3 for last year’s highly anticipated Heat-Lakers showdown and a 7.9 for another meeting between Miami and LA in 2004.
Chris Paul’s Clippers debut in the nightcap against the Warriors earned a 2.3 overnight, up 77 per cent over last year’s Portland-Golden State telecast. It was ESPN’s highest-rated Christmas prime-time game.
The earlier night game on ESPN – Magic-Thunder – drew a 1.9 overnight, up 36 per cent from last year’s Denver-Oklahoma City match-up. The afternoon’s final rematch on ABC, the Heat’s rout of the Mavericks, earned a 5.6 overnight, up six per cent from Boston-Orlando last year.
The Celtics-Knicks game on TNT to open the day drew a 4.1 overnight. The early game on ESPN last year, Bulls-Knicks, had a 2.7 on ESPN.
Ratings represent the percentage of all homes with televisions tuned to a programme. Overnight ratings measure the country’s largest markets.
