The stunning victory by the New York Knickerbockers over the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday gave ABC the most-watched NBA Finals Game 4 since 1998, the year of Michael Jordan’s last championship with the Chicago Bulls.
Nielsen data showed an average of 20.9 million viewers watched the Knicks overcome a 29-point halftime deficit to top Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs 107-106 at Madison Square Garden, the greatest comeback in NBA Finals history. The Knicks have a 3-1 lead in the series and will play Game 5 on Saturday in San Antonio, attempting to win their first NBA championship in 53 years.
Through the first four games, the NBA Finals are averaging 19.6 million viewers, also the highest since the Bulls-Utah Jazz faced off on NBC in 1998. The series is on track to become the most-watched since the NBA Finals moved to ABC and ESPN in 2002.
“The match-up is ideal from a media business standpoint, featuring the nation’s largest media market with New York, teams with robust followings and multiple all-stars, especially Wemby, the compelling new face of the NBA,” said Lee Berke, president of LHB Sports Entertainment & Media, Inc.
The Knicks-Spurs series is up 116% over the first four games of last year’s match-up between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers. But the most encouraging numbers for ABC and ESPN is the growth among younger viewers, who have become harder to reach in the age of social media and streaming. Ratings among teens aged 12 to 17 are up 138% while the 18 to 24 age group is up 147%.
ABC is also seeing spikes in viewing among women, up 121%, and the Latino audience due to its large populations in the markets of New York and San Antonio, according to Flora Kelly, ESPN’s senior vice president for audience research.
Viewing in the New York market alone is accounting for 18% of the national audience. The average price for a 30-second commercial on the telecasts topped $1 million each, according to people familiar with the figures who were not authorized to comment publicly. Some spots have gone for as much as $2.3 million.
Alana Haim, left, Este Haim, Taylor Swift and Mariska Hargitay cheer during Game 4 at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Wednesday.
(Al Bello / Getty Images)
In addition to delivering highly competitive games, the NBA Finals also had President Trump and pop superstar Taylor Swift in attendance at Madison Square Garden. Both are capable of turning a live TV event into a full-blown spectacle.
“What we’re seeing is that this Spurs-Knicks series is a tremendous cultural moment,” Kelly said.
Trump attended Game 3, making him the first sitting president to attend an NBA Finals. While Trump was a fixture at Knicks games before he entered the national political scene, some commentators, such as ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, believed the president’s insistence on attending Monday’s contest became a distraction that disrupted the home team’s momentum. (The Knicks lost the game 115-111, ending the team’s streak of 13 consecutive wins.)
Swift showed up for Game 4, joining “Law & Order: SVU” star Mariska Hargitay and the other celebrities who regularly show up courtside at Madison Square Garden.
