NBA Finals Game One Ratings: 11.8 Overnight For Heat and Thunder
Game One of the NBA Finals on ABC generated a monster 11.8 overnight rating, the best for a series opener on the network since it took over the Finals in 2002.
This puts the series on pace to potentially deliver Michael Jordan-type ratings to the NBA. The guess here was the series would average a 12.9 rating, which, at the moment, looks like a low prediction.
Assuming the Thunder don’t run away and hide over the next two games, and the series goes six or seven games like many predict, then the NBA will be thrilled to have gone from locked out to What Lockout in a mere eight months. Considering the NFL saw the same uptick in audience following a lockout, perhaps MLB should attempt the same?
Previously: NBA Finals: How Good Will TV Ratings Be?
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74 Responses to “NBA Finals Game One Ratings: 11.8 Overnight For Heat and Thunder”
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Wayne Gretzky Got Drunk at a Bar in South Carolina [Photos]
June 13th, 2012 at 1:20 PM
Its like you dont even read the comments
June 13th, 2012 at 1:23 PM
What
June 13th, 2012 at 1:24 PM
ESPN has shoved the NBA down our throats the past couple months. It was bound to happen with so many people actively rooting against the Heat.
June 13th, 2012 at 1:24 PM
Considering the NFL saw the same uptick in audience following a lockout, perhaps MLB should attempt the same?
Its like you dont even read the comments
June 13th, 2012 at 1:27 PM
/facepalm
June 13th, 2012 at 1:27 PM
Indeed. I heard the Heat staff are currently lining the visitor locker room with animal pelts.
June 13th, 2012 at 1:28 PM
ESPN has shoved the NBA down our throats the past couple months. It was bound to happen with so many people actively rooting against the Heat.
This
June 13th, 2012 at 1:29 PM
Still my favorite story of the year.
June 13th, 2012 at 1:30 PM
I really don’t get it. You rarely use humor in your posts, so I can’t tell if this is a joke.
June 13th, 2012 at 1:31 PM
He reads the comments; he just enjoys trolling too much.
June 13th, 2012 at 1:31 PM
Maybe they should just shorten every season.
Less saturation = more interest?
June 13th, 2012 at 1:33 PM
I think it’s both. He truly believes this, and he enjoys trolling.
June 13th, 2012 at 1:34 PM
ESPN has shoved the NBA down our throats the past couple months.
There hasn’t really a lot of good live sports on ESPN in the last couple of months so I haven’t been watching that network.
June 13th, 2012 at 1:34 PM
I hate it when the thugs from ESPN shows up at my door, straps me to the sofa, and makes me watch ESPN all day.
June 13th, 2012 at 1:35 PM
nba playoffs are set up to show something like a game (or more) a night for i think 45 days. ESPN/TNT/TBS/NBA TV.
no competition for the postseason.
imagine MLB ending reg season in august, wrapping by weekend before NFL starts. ZERO competition. would clean up
June 13th, 2012 at 1:35 PM
There’s something to be said for this. Look what the NFL does with a 16 game season. But imagine how fans would react if a team kept season ticket prices the same but cut the number of games by 20-30%.
June 13th, 2012 at 1:36 PM
He can’t truly believe this…it doesn’t make sense. It’s like saying Bill Gates and Steve Jobs made a bunch of money in the tech world… so, I am going to start a tech company too and be rich!
It has to be an attempt at humor.
June 13th, 2012 at 1:36 PM
the true hallmark of high quality writing.
really is like an internet version of Skip Bayless
June 13th, 2012 at 1:36 PM
Ideal league length IMHO, NBA-50 games. NFL-16 (why mess with a good thing). MLB-0.
June 13th, 2012 at 1:38 PM
You know, there’s an argument to be made – a good argument, mind you – that labor strife throughout the history of baseball has gotten MLB into the incredibly secure financial situation that the league(s) currently enjoy. You aren’t making that argument, though, as you are judging the strength of the game on a window dressing metric that does not scale very well to the measures that actually matter in terms of revenue creation and profit motive. Ergo, you suck at making conmparisons between the NBA and MLB
June 13th, 2012 at 1:40 PM
Take the same logic, and start the NBA season at Christmas every year.
Increasingly season length is nothing new, and it certainly isn’t going away. Arguing against it is like yelling at clouds for raining on you.
June 13th, 2012 at 1:40 PM
You would have thought it was the super bowl, bar was slammed last night with people crowded around the TVs.
/Rattttiiiingggzzzz
June 13th, 2012 at 1:40 PM
Swap out anything soccer related with MLB and we have a deal
June 13th, 2012 at 1:41 PM
Sure, I guess this is worth talking about if you just like goofy hypotheticals that make no sense with regards to basically everything else about the sport(s).
June 13th, 2012 at 1:42 PM
dumbest thing i’ve heard in a while.
June 13th, 2012 at 1:44 PM
I was predicting a 10.5 for the series. Looks like TBL may have had a better read on things than I did.
June 13th, 2012 at 1:44 PM
THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN!
/loud noises
//back to work
June 13th, 2012 at 1:44 PM
Great idea, if everything was based on TV ratings. Oddly enough, fans in the seats are more important than TV ratings. Especially in MLB
June 13th, 2012 at 1:45 PM
That’s a clown question, bro.
/ok, sorry
June 13th, 2012 at 1:45 PM
May have to pick up this book.
June 13th, 2012 at 1:46 PM
Considering the NFL saw the same uptick in audience following a lockout, perhaps MLB should attempt the same?
Hello police? Yes I’d like to report a rape of logic.
June 13th, 2012 at 1:48 PM
I think starting NBA at Christmas and going until the end of July is not a bad idea. Less overlap with football/college hoops. July is kind of a sucky sports month unless you really get into Home Run Derby.
June 13th, 2012 at 1:48 PM
So you’d have the last two games of the World Series up against the opening weekend of college football.
June 13th, 2012 at 1:49 PM
The NBA really needs to thank LeBron for forming the sports world’s biggest heel faction.
June 13th, 2012 at 1:49 PM
Not happening. Soccer is here to stay. Deal with it. I’m willing to give you 1 game for baseball. Played at 4 A.M. Eastern and shown only on ESPN Classic.
June 13th, 2012 at 1:51 PM
Still my favorite story of the year.
2011-12:
http://espn.go.com/nhl/attendance: 17,455
NBA average: 17,273
/apples to oranges
June 13th, 2012 at 1:51 PM
clap……….clap………clap…..clap..clap..clap.clap.clap.ClapCLapCLApCLAPCLAPCLAPCLAP!!!!!
June 13th, 2012 at 1:52 PM
Listen, MLB is bringing in record revenues…something has to change.
June 13th, 2012 at 1:54 PM
I think that all sports should collude with each other so there is no overlapping sports at all.
June 13th, 2012 at 1:55 PM
Serious question:
Is the MLB really in as good of financial shape as you guys say?
June 13th, 2012 at 1:56 PM
Maybe. Or, maybe not.
June 13th, 2012 at 1:57 PM
I clicked on the Craig James post to see what the new guys are writing. Unfortunately I forgot that I’m in IE and not Firefox. Big mistake.
June 13th, 2012 at 1:57 PM
Yeah, but that’s pretty fun.
June 13th, 2012 at 1:57 PM
In all fairness, Atlanta still has an NBA team.
June 13th, 2012 at 1:57 PM
MLB is bringing in record revenues
Apparently not in Cleveland if you ask Shapiro.
June 13th, 2012 at 1:58 PM
3 months for every sport, imagine the ratings!
/tbl’d
an ostrich has a better view of their surroundings with their head in the sand than TBL does with the MLB
June 13th, 2012 at 2:00 PM
Arguing against it is like yelling at clouds for raining on you.
That’s my cloud you are yelling at. Stop it.
June 13th, 2012 at 2:00 PM
I clicked on the Craig James post to see what the new guys are writing. Unfortunately I forgot that I’m in IE and not Firefox. Big mistake.
I got a little tear in my eye when I saw some comments in there — I knew it had to wait when I got home to check it out.
June 13th, 2012 at 2:01 PM
I clicked on the Craig James post to see what the new guys are writing. Unfortunately I forgot that I’m in IE and not Firefox. Big mistake.
I didn’t realize there were a flurry of new people commenting there. This one is the best:
Craig James made his wife a bowl of Captn’ Crunch for mothers day breakfast.
June 13th, 2012 at 2:03 PM
There’s not total transparency. But the picture we do have looks really, really good. Individual teams signing multi-billion-dollar local TV deals, rising paid attendance, ballparks across America that are designed to line the pockets of owners while municipalities pay for them, labor harmony that points to happy owners and players, a digital media group that is bringing in millions.
June 13th, 2012 at 2:05 PM
I haven’t seen a single Ernie Johnson post this week. Is Shamburgler already lying down on the job?
June 13th, 2012 at 2:05 PM
I seem to recall the 1994 Lockout not going so well. A year over year 20% decline in attendance, and anger from those who did attend, is the goal here? Don’t forget to add a new and improved steroid era homerun derby in to the mix to reinvigorate the game.
/This lifelong Indians fan never really came back to the game after that.
June 13th, 2012 at 2:07 PM
But they don’t make their videos available for free sans-ads on YouTube, how are they supposed to connect to the youth of today?
/TBL’d
June 13th, 2012 at 2:07 PM
Could be construed as code for “Let’s cut the regular season to 66 games every year!” And I’d be down with that.
June 13th, 2012 at 2:08 PM
Better to have spared yourself the torment of 1997
June 13th, 2012 at 2:08 PM
I seem to recall the 1994 Lockout not going so well.
My dad won a trip to the Skydome to see the Bluejays play, he was gonna take me — I was so amped. Then the strike happened. He ended up taking my sister to see Miss Saigon. What a bummer.
June 13th, 2012 at 2:08 PM
Cool, good to know there’s nothing in that thread worth wasting any time on.
June 13th, 2012 at 2:08 PM
Is the MLB really in as good of financial shape as you guys say?
This is still a stupid way to judge things but it makes more sense than ratings so here goes: Andre Ethier just signed a $17M/year extension and nobody really gave a shit because the money seems to be unquestionably there to pay for it
June 13th, 2012 at 2:08 PM
Hey! You! Stop yelling at my cloud!
June 13th, 2012 at 2:08 PM
Years ago MLB was considering going public with MLBAM and I think the IPO was estimated at over $2 billion. I wonder what it would be now. Several times that number, I reckon.
June 13th, 2012 at 2:09 PM
Don’t forget to add a new and improved steroid era homerun derby in to the mix to reinvigorate the game.
The thrill of ARod breaking Lou Gehrig’s all-time grand slam record should bring fans back, too.
June 13th, 2012 at 2:10 PM
Giving the guys at Gitmo new ideas.
What an assclown.
June 13th, 2012 at 2:11 PM
Cool, good to know there’s nothing in that thread worth wasting any time on.
You’re welcome?
June 13th, 2012 at 2:11 PM
Jason, it’s not often that I do this, but …
/ Claps
June 13th, 2012 at 2:19 PM
Who the hell is pay2play and why is he allowed to defile our Craig James thread with stupid trite played-out jokes?
June 13th, 2012 at 2:21 PM
This is true. I don’t remember where I heard it, but someone was talking about the finances, and making the point that salaries don’t drive ticket prices up (as in expenditures make a need for greater income), but rather increased revenue drives increased salaries.
June 13th, 2012 at 2:38 PM
Also wouldn’t the millions upon millions of lost ticket and ad revenue from a month and a half worth of regular season baseball absolutely dwarf any change in advertising revenue that the playoffs and World Series would see?
This seems like an absolutely moronic business idea.
June 13th, 2012 at 2:38 PM
What would they clean up in? Ratings? Who fucking cares? At this point, caring about ratings is like caring about how many people listen to the radio on an AM/FM dial.
Maybe your point is to ruin the regular season and increase playoffs. I mean who really knows at this point, but I assume that’s likely part of your agenda, as it is a lynchpin in your desire to ruin college football.
If devaluing the regular season for playoffs is so vital to the success of sports league, then why is the English Premiere League the most popular league in the world?
June 13th, 2012 at 2:50 PM
TBL’s an expert in being a business fool.
June 13th, 2012 at 3:14 PM
Take revenue sharing out of the equation and lets see how “great” of financial situation Baseball is truly in.
June 13th, 2012 at 3:15 PM
Jessica Sanchez singing the National Anthem gave me thoughts of a dirty Sanchez…
June 13th, 2012 at 3:32 PM
They’re doing quite well, actually. Take the perhaps one of the least-interesting, shittiest franchises – the San Diego Padres:
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Padres-TV-Deal-Close-to-Completion-Report-146452075.html
June 13th, 2012 at 3:39 PM
What makes no sense in this NBA vs. MLB thing (the first question is why it’s even a thing) but how people could value great TV ratings over franchise stability. It just makes no sense to me. So the NBA is generating good NBA finals ratings…what does this do for the other teams in the league? Does this mean more people will go to Bucks or Hawks games? Watch and follow them locally?
Because that’s the problem the NBA is experiencing – it has difficulty being consumed locally, and generating revenues from that (see last year’s lockout). This is something that baseball franchises have taken advantage of, as well as monetizing the digital space (which the NBA is woefully behind on). I found this article:
June 13th, 2012 at 3:40 PM
12 teams with five-year averages in the red…that’s nearly half of the franchises losing money.
But ratings in the NBA finals!!!