The Los Angeles Lakers were crowned champions of the NBA on Sunday night, but the NFL was still champion of sports television. NBC’s Sunday Night Football matchup between the Seattle Seahawks and the Minnesota Vikings had more than double the audience of what turned out to be the last game of the 2020 NBA Finals.
An audience of 11.4 million people tuned in to watch football. They were rewarded with a game that came down to a touchdown pass thrown with just 15 seconds left on the clock. By contrast, LeBron James’s fourth NBA title (the Lakers’ 17th) drew just 5.6 million viewers.
Liam McKeone of The Big Lead writes that this isn’t that big of a deal and certainly shouldn’t be a surprise. Ratings are a fun talking point for some, but in reality this isn’t a reason to panic.
“The NFL should not be used as a baseline for any ratings discussion for anything on television, much less the NBA, because it regularly posts outlandishly high numbers,” he says.
McKeone says that the reality is that the NBA has never been the NFL in terms of ratings. Football is engrained as a part of American culture on Sundays. Sure, the NBA game had higher stakes, but even in June, when the Finals are usually played, the numbers do not compete with primetime NFL broadcasts.
Adam Silver and the rest of the League Office is certainly concerned about the decline in ratings, but there are explanations. The NBA was playing during a time of year it usually does not. There is more competition not only from the sports world, but also from other types of broadcasts and streaming services. There is probably at least some people that were turned off by the league’s social justice messaging as the White House and right wing media outlets have suggested. Plus a presidential election and a worldwide pandemic is effecting viewers’ habits.
“So, in summary, yes, SNF blew a championship-clinching NBA Finals game out of the water in terms of viewership,” McKeone concludes. “The NBA is undoubtedly not pleased about that. But that does not mean the ship is sinking and the league may as well disband. It simply means the NFL is still king, and the NBA was negatively affected by COVID-19. Like literally everyone else. It’s as simple as that.”