• Ratings Crash for NBA, MLB After Protest-Filled Debuts

    From Ubiquitous@21:1/5 to All on Sun Aug 2 19:40:30 2020
    XPost: alt.tv.pol-incorrect, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.usa
    XPost: alt.sports.basketball.nba

    As the NBA and MLB return from their coronavirus-imposed hiatus, it
    appears TV viewers are not interested in what the increasingly woke
    leagues have to offer.

    With both baseball and basketball draped in all sorts of Black Lives
    Matter and social justice symbolism for their opening games, a
    substantially smaller number of fans tuned-in to the rest of the week’s
    games.

    According to Outkick.com, neither league did well.

    As for the opening games, Outkick reported that the return of the NBA on
    TNT saw the following numbers:

    Lakers-Clippers: 3.4 million
    Pelicans-Jazz: 2.1 million

    ESPN’s MLB return numbers were also underwhelming:

    Yankees-Nationals: 4.0 million
    Dodgers-Giants: 2.8 million

    Outkick’s Ryan Glasspiegel added more ratings numbers on Twitter.

    “To be fair since I compared MLB vs NBA return night 1, here is night
    2,” (July 24) he wrote, adding:

    MLB (last Friday, ESPN)
    Mets-Braves (4p) – 922K
    Brewers-Cubs(7p) – 1.0M
    Angels-As (10p) – 797K

    NBA (last night ESPN) (July 31)
    Celtics-Bucks (6:30p) – 1.3M
    Mavs-Rockets (9p)- 1.7M

    The Athletic’s Ethan Strauss also noted that the numbers continued to
    fall off for MLB:

    MLB really fell off after opening day. In general, both leagues
    aren't getting the audience one might expect from a nation
    that's been deprived of entertainment for months
    https://t.co/GazeoR9SNB

    — Ethan Strauss (@SherwoodStrauss) August 2, 2020

    For good measure, Strauss also pointed out that baseball can’t blame the coronavirus. The virus didn’t stop people from watching Tom Brady golf
    with Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson back in May.

    You could chalk sagging interest up to pandemic conditions,
    but 5.8 million tuned in to watch Tom Brady hit golf shots
    into the woods https://t.co/vIPxNc1uDi

    — Ethan Strauss (@SherwoodStrauss) August 2, 2020

    Indeed, the charity golf match earned record TV ratings in May.

    Dubbed “The Match II,” the game featuring Tom Brady, Phil Mickelson,
    Peyton Manning, and Tiger Woods peaked at an amazing 6.3 million viewers
    and raised more than $20 million for charity.


    --
    Every American should want President Trump and his administration to
    handle the coronavirus epidemic effectively and successfully. Those who
    seem eager to see the president fail and to call every administration
    misstep a fiasco risk letting their partisanship blind them to the
    demands not only of civic responsibility but of basic decency.

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