Eventually, it will be official: The NBA again lost viewership on its ABC games, down from last season’s all-time low of a 2.95 million average in 12 games. The current average for those premium network TV games in 2020-2021 is 2.83 million, per Showbuzz, with three ABC games to go. Based on how this average drops as the season moves along (it starts off highest after the Christmas games bonanza), we can safely project that the ABC games will finish at a mark that’s lower than last season, but not precipitously so. The jury is still out on the ESPN and TNT games, but recent results have been bad. Sports media writer Ryan Glasspiegel observed that Wednesday’s ESPN NBA games finished lower than the AEW, pro wrestling’s distant No. 2 brand. On Tuesday, TNT’s NBA doubleheader averaged a meager 724,000 viewers.
