NBA Tops Christmas Night For ABC
ABC topped Christmas Day with NBA play, clocking a 1.8 demo rating and 5.46M viewers.
ESPN and ABC’s NBA Christmas coverage averaged a 3.9 metered market rating across its four games – a 39% hike compared to last year’s five-game schedule, based on metered market ratings from Nielsen. Among the packages boasting points, the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 112-107 victory over the Houston Rockets on ABC drew a 4.1 metered market rating – the highest-rated prime-time NBA Christmas broadcast since 2003. The live sports observation of the holiday, which also included the Philadelphia EAgles beating the Oakland Raiders on ESPN’s Monday Night Football, could lead to more than usual data adjustment when final stats show up.
Meanwhile, among non-sports-airing networks on Christmas night:
NBC’s animated 1966 special How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1.6, 5.31M) at 8 PM was the night’s No. 1 ranked non-sports Big Four program in the demo, jumping 23% compared to its most recent previous broadcast, on Friday, November 24. NBC followed it with the 2000 live-action iteration of the Seussian classic (1.3, 4.0M) from 8:30-11 PM. The Grinchfest tallied a primetime 1.3 demo rating and 4.2M viewers for NBC.
CBS (0.6, 3.98M) followed, offering a repeat lineup of The Big Bang Theory (0.9, 5.32M), Kevin Can Wait (0.7, 4.08M), Young Sheldon (0.7, 4.33M), Man with a Plan (0.5, 3.63M) and Scorpion (0.5, 3.26M).
Fox (0.4, 1.44M) served up Showtime at the Apollo holiday special (0.4, 1.74M) and The Gifted (0.3, 1.14M).
CW (0.2, 948K) logged a holiday repeat of iHeartRadio Jingle Ball (0.3, 1.02M) and Whose Line Is It Anyway? (0.2, 730K).
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