NBA Finals ratings are well below KU men’s basketball win in NCAA championship game
The first game of the NBA Finals was a humdinger ... until the fourth quarter, when the Boston Celtics made history and pulled away for a 120-108 win over the Golden State Warriors.
That’s been the closest game in a pretty blah series.
The Warriors won Game 2 by 19 points, but the Celtics’ margin of victory in Game 3 was 16.
That could explain the lackluster television ratings. Game 3, on ABC, had 11.5 million television viewers, the third straight contest that failed to reach 12 million in viewership
Those numbers have lagged well behind the NCAA Tournament. Danny Neckel, a sports blogger, took a closer look at the highest-rated basketball games in 2022, and No. 1 on the list is Kansas’ 72-69 win over North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament championship game, which aired on cable network TBS.
Three Tar Heels games from the tourney are atop this list that was shared before Game 3 of the NBA Finals, which has been the lowest-rated game of the series.
KU’s Final Four win over Villanova is seventh on this list but is now eighth when adding Game 3 of the NBA Finals.
That list shows KU’s title-game win had 17.0 million viewers. Add in fans watching on other platforms (mostly streaming) and that number jumped to 18.1 million.
