TV Ratings for Black Lives Matter-Saturated NBA Finals Crash to All-Time Low
The NBA found out after Wednesday’s game that wokeness, even during the finals, doesn’t translate to ratings.
In fact, game one of the NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat was the least-watched finals game since at least the 1994 finals.
That series matched up the Houston Rockets with the New York Knicks following the first retirement of NBA superstar Michael Jordan.
Wednesday’s game, which featured the Lakers’ anti-police activist LeBron James — who is widely regarded as the best player in the game — drew little interest.
In fact, the game actually shed off 45 percent of viewers when compared to last year’s game one matchup between the Toronto Raptors and the Golden State Warriors.
Toronto is in Canada, so a team based in another country actually garnered more TV interest last year than this year’s woke opening game.
Deadline reported game one of the 2019 finals had 13.3 million viewers, which at the time was considered down.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, game one of the finals on ABC Wednesday night attracted a mere 7.4 million viewers.
Those numbers are abysmal.
The Lakers vs. Heat matchup had the lowest finals game viewership since at least 1994 (when viewership began to be regularly recorded), and is the fourth straight year the NBA has seen a decline in game one total viewership.
TV Ratings: NBA finals opens with record low audience https://t.co/w4jw50ngdc pic.twitter.com/Jd86DfParL
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) October 1, 2020
For comparison of just how bad this is for the NBA, Fox News’ “Hannity” averages 4.5 million viewers per night, while “Tucker Carlson Tonight” averages 4.4 million nightly viewers, according to Fox.
Those are political commentary shows on a cable news network.
On the Fox network on Wednesday, “The Masked Singer,” a singing competition between people in masks, almost toppled the finals with 6.93 million total viewers.
ABC actually attracted 4.3 million viewers to a rerun of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” one night just a few months ago, Variety reported.
The NBA Finals opener, the once-a-year pinnacle of professional basketball, only attracted 7.4 million people on a free broadcast network.
It was free to watch!
Few people were interested.
Of course, ratings for the return of the NBA inside of the Orlando bubble have been terrible since the sport returned in late July after its coronavirus pandemic hiatus.
The woke NBA and its politically outspoken players have alienated millions of people and helped the league to further hemorrhage both causal and loyal viewers.
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Many fans have been turned off by, among other things, the league’s commitment to leftist politics and its full embracing of the Black Lives Matter political movement.
The courts during games actually say “Black Lives Matter,” while player jerseys contain phrases and names which are meant to stealthily implicate law enforcement officers in a perceived campaign of genocide against minority Americans.
NBA unveils court design for the Finals, which begin tomorrow. Traditional NBA Finals logo now adorned with presenting sponsor (@YouTubeTV ) and Walt Disney World in script is prominently displayed, along with Black Lives Matter. pic.twitter.com/ESWkwvuqeY
— Brad Townsend (@townbrad) September 29, 2020
People aren’t biting.
The NBA got woke, and now it’s going for broke.
The legacy of LeBron James might be that he was successful in ensuring nobody was around to care about his legacy.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.