What did more South Floridians watch: Dolphins-Seahawks or Heat-Lakers Game 3? The answer
Unless the Miami Heat-Los Angeles Lakers series goes six games, this past Sunday likely will be the only time in our lives that the Dolphins will play a regular-season game and the Heat will play an NBA Finals game on the same day.
So which game did South Florida have more interest in watching?
Game 3 of the Heat-Lakers series at 7:30 p.m. on WPLG-ABC 10 was viewed in 10.6 percent of Miami-Fort Lauderdale homes with TV sets, according to Nielsen Media Research. (That means the game did a 10.6 local rating.)
Conversely, the Dolphins on WSVN-Fox 7 at 1 p.m. was viewed in 8.7 percent of Miami-Fort Lauderdale homes with TV sets.
Both numbers won their time slots locally but are also thoroughly underwhelming, unless this particular Nielsen sample size is flawed and isn’t reflective of South Florida’s genuine sports appetite. Nielsen would dispute any such notion, and there’s no tangible way of knowing that.
If those numbers are correct, keep in mind that few single-team NFL markets have teams drawing such modest ratings for their home team as the Dolphins, who typically drew 14 to 20 ratings a few years ago. And the Heat has lost more than half its playoff audience from the Big Three era.
One ratings point in Miami-Fort Lauderdale equals 16,522 homes.
For Wednesday’s game, 12.9 percent of Miami-Fort Lauderdale homes with TV sets watched, compared with 30.5 percent for Game 1 of the Heat’s most recent finals appearance in 2014 against San Antonio, according to Nielsen. The lopsided score was a factor, and aside from cable news, fewer people nationally are watching TV in general than earlier last decade.
For Game 2 on Friday, 11.2 percent of Miami-Fort Lauderdale homes tuned in.
Nationally, here’s one thing learned during the past four weeks: America has far more interest in watching a random regular season NFL contest than NBA playoff games.
On Sunday, Eagles-49ers drew 15.1 million viewers on NBC. Game 3 of Heat-Lakers at same time on ABC drew 5.9 million nationally, making it the least-watched NBA Finals game on record.
Among adults 18 for 49 nationally, “Sunday Night Football” beat the NBA Finals by a 105 percent margin.
And this should be discouraging for the NBA: When Game 5 of Astros-Nationals competed with Packers-Chiefs on a Sunday night last October, the World Series game was trounced by the NFL but still drew 11.4 million viewers nationally, far more than Heat-Lakers drew against the NFL.
Nationally, Game 1 of Heat-Lakers drew 7.4 million viewers nationally, smallest Finals audience since at least 1994, when records began being kept. Game 2 set another record for smallest Finals audience with 6.6 million viewers and Game 3 set yet another record.
The Heat-Lakers national ratings on ABC have been embarrassingly low: 4.1, 3.6 and 3.1.
Prior to this year, the record lows for an NBA Finals game were a 5.2 rating and 8.1 million viewers for Nets-Spurs Game 2 in 2003.
The question is whether NBA ratings will return to normal when the sport returns to a normal calendar. But the league should be at least somewhat concerned.
If there’s any solace for the NBA, it’s this: Ratings for all the sports that have changed calendars due to COVID-19 — the Stanley Cup playoffs, Kentucky Derby, U.S. Open golf — have all seen a sharp ratings decline.
And there’s this, per sportsmediamatch.com: Among non-NFL live sports events since March, only the Kentucky Derby drew more viewers than Games 1 and 2 of the NBA Finals. But a NASCAR race in Darlington, South Carolina, was fourth on that list, ahead of Game 3 of the NBA Finals.
Also, the TV ratings don’t take into account streaming services, though streaming would not typically boost the overall rating significantly for live sports.
For example, Heat playoff games have been streamed by about 5,000 people on average in South Florida, which is less than one-third of one local ratings point.
Also, ratings theoretically should be helped during the COVID era because fewer people are watching in bars and restaurants - audiences that typically aren’t measured.
NFL ratings, incidentally, fell on Sunday with two games postponed due to COVID but have remained generally strong, with Cowboys-Seahawks nine days ago producing the highest rating for a Week 3 Sunday afternoon window since 2014.
THIS AND THAT
▪ Sunday’s Dolphins-49ers game — which would typically be part of the CBS package because it has an AFC road team featured — has been cross-flexed to Fox to help balance the network schedules that day.
The Dolphins will air regionally (we will know audience size on Wednesday) and will compete with three CBS Sunday games in the late-afternoon window, including Giants-Cowboys, which was cross-flexed from Fox. CBS has the double-header on Sunday.
▪ Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit were assigned to UM-Clemson at 7:30 p.m. Saturday on ABC, their third Hurricanes telecast this season.
▪ ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins, one of the biggest Heat advocates all year, now assures that the Lakers will win the Finals in a five-game “gentleman’s sweep.”... TNT’s Chris Webber was among those marveling at the Heat’s Game 3 win, asserting that the Lakers have substantially better talent… On NBA TV, Charles Barkley again raved about how well coached the Heat is.
Here’s my Tuesday piece on the Dolphins’ decision to stick with Ryan Fitzpatrick at quarterback and coaches discussing Fitzpatrick and Tua Tagovailoa.
Here’s my Tuesday piece with lots of Dolphins personnel nuggets.
This story was originally published October 6, 2020 at 1:47 PM.
