The NBA returned on Thursday night to bumper TV ratings for TNT.
A thrilling showdown between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers drew 3.4 million total viewers, more than doubling the network’s average viewership for a regular season telecast. To put that number into perspective, that represents the eighth most-watched game of the NBA season so far, and perhaps a little surprisingly, the least-watched of the Lakers and Clippers’ four match ups in the 2019/20 season to date.
The two L.A. teams’ Christmas game drew a whopping 9 million total viewers for ABC and ESPN. Last night’s game was TNT’s second most watched of the season, behind the first Lakers-Clippers game of the season from Oct. of last year.
Thursday’s doubleheader, which also featured a close encounter between the Utah Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans, scored an average audience of 2.9 million viewers across TNT and TV Everywhere platforms, which represents an increase of 109% over the average viewership for an NBA game this season, which stood at 1.4 million viewers prior to the COVID-enforced hiatus.
The Clippers-Lakers game peaked at 4.1 million viewers.
More to come…
