Headed into the final week of the 2020-21 season, the NBA has averaged
1.4 million viewers across ESPN, ABC, and TNT, down 13% from last year’s disastrous COVID-interrupted, bubble season.
Coming into the 2020-21 season, NBA games on ABC — the league’s most prominent broadcast partner — were down 45% since 2011-12. Yes, 45%. Within that same time frame, NBA broadcasts on TNT were down 40%, and ESPN was down 20%.
ABC’s damning declines are most concerning. Last season, the NBA on ABC recorded its lowest average on record, 2.95 million. While exact figures are yet to be determined, ABC games this season will still come in lower. In other words, lower than an all-time low.
Last month, fans were so fed up with stars randomly sitting out that an episode of
AEW Dynamite (1,219,000) — the country’s second-ranked wrestling promotion — topped the much-hyped Nets-76ers (1,095,000) matchup head-to-head.