Ratings Crash for NBA, MLB After Protest-Filled Debuts

[Ubiquitous]

As the NBA and MLB return from their coronavirus-imposed hiatus, it
appears TV viewers are not interested in what the increasingly woke
leagues have to offer.

With both baseball and basketball draped in all sorts of Black Lives
Matter and social justice symbolism for their opening games, a
substantially smaller number of fans tuned-in to the rest of the week’s
games.

According to Outkick.com, neither league did well.

As for the opening games, Outkick reported that the return of the NBA on
TNT saw the following numbers:

Lakers-Clippers: 3.4 million
Pelicans-Jazz: 2.1 million

ESPN’s MLB return numbers were also underwhelming:

Yankees-Nationals: 4.0 million
Dodgers-Giants: 2.8 million

Outkick’s Ryan Glasspiegel added more ratings numbers on Twitter.

“To be fair since I compared MLB vs NBA return night 1, here is night
2,” (July 24) he wrote, adding:

MLB (last Friday, ESPN)
Mets-Braves (4p) – 922K
Brewers-Cubs(7p) – 1.0M
Angels-As (10p) – 797K

NBA (last night ESPN) (July 31)
Celtics-Bucks (6:30p) – 1.3M
Mavs-Rockets (9p)- 1.7M

The Athletic’s Ethan Strauss also noted that the numbers continued to
fall off for MLB:

MLB really fell off after opening day. In general, both leagues
aren't getting the audience one might expect from a nation
that's been deprived of entertainment for months
https://t.co/GazeoR9SNB

— Ethan Strauss (@SherwoodStrauss) August 2, 2020

For good measure, Strauss also pointed out that baseball can’t blame the
coronavirus. The virus didn’t stop people from watching Tom Brady golf
with Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson back in May.

You could chalk sagging interest up to pandemic conditions,
but 5.8 million tuned in to watch Tom Brady hit golf shots
into the woods https://t.co/vIPxNc1uDi

— Ethan Strauss (@SherwoodStrauss) August 2, 2020

Indeed, the charity golf match earned record TV ratings in May.

Dubbed “The Match II,” the game featuring Tom Brady, Phil Mickelson,
Peyton Manning, and Tiger Woods peaked at an amazing 6.3 million viewers
and raised more than $20 million for charity.


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