The NBA and MLB, two of the nation’s biggest pro sports, have returned to TV after the COVID-19 hiatus. However, their ratings show that fans just aren’t all that interested in the new, woke version of the leagues.
Both basketball and baseball hit screens this summer filled with paeans to Black Lives Matter: Protests during the national anthem, and an avalanche of sloganeering on signs, stadium floors and fields, and on player jersey backs. Along with the intrusion of this political activism on TV during the games, the two leagues have literally blasted social media with one woke proclamation after another.
For weeks ahead of the debut of the shortened 2020 seasons, NBA and MLB sports reporters brayed about how “important” the leagues’ returns were and insisted that fans were “hungry” for sports.
But both leagues have struggled to limp past a few million viewers for any particular game, and overall TV ratings have dipped below the pre-pandemic numbers.
According to SportMediaWatch, the NBA’s ratings have fallen and MLB is “weak.”
The NBA has struggled to average more than 1.5 million viewers, and baseball is in no better shape. For the NBA’s opening week, the league averaged 1.56 million viewers, down from the already lackluster pre-coronavirus average of 1.62 million. Baseball has seen a smattering of numbers that hover, in most cases, well below 1.5 million average viewers.
The numbers for the NBA are particularly worrisome given that many of the are low performing games are playoff seeding games that have taken place in primetime. These are supposed to be the biggest games to date, games that will decide playoff matchups.
Though, fans just aren’t tuning-in.
NBA's Orlando seeding games averaged 1.28 million viewers across TNT, ABC, ESPN. Tough to really compare this pre-postseason bubble event to the regular season given time slots, etc. Most games also simulcast on RSNs in local markets.
NBA TV also had 14 games (216,000 viewers)
— Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) August 18, 2020
Top 5 seeding games from Orlando:
1) Clippers-Lakers, 7/30, TNT: 3.35 million viewers
2) Bucks-Rockets, 8/2, ABC: 2.44 million
3) Jazz-Pelicans, 7/30, TNT: 2.11 million
4) Lakers-Raptors, 8/1, ESPN: 1.80 million
5) Rockets-Mavs, 7/31, ESPN: 1.72 million https://t.co/Nrt7rOY7Ii— Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) August 18, 2020
Ratings for both leagues have been bad since their initial debuts. The numbers were similar early this month.
The ratings for the NBA were so poor that Fox News programming — and even Rachel Maddow on MSNBC — beat opening night NBA ratings.
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