NBA leaves viewers scrambling but ratings high. Local sportscaster gets new gig
A six-pack of media notes on a Wednesday:
▪ For years, watching the early rounds of the NBA playoffs was simple enough: Viewers would flip to Turner Sports from Monday through Thursday (and Sunday evenings), and turn to ESPN or ABC on Friday nights, Saturday nights and Sunday afternoon.
But the NBA’s new media deal is more challenging to navigate, with playoff games seemingly airing willy-nilly on different networks.
But viewers haven’t been deterred. The league announced Tuesday that the first round of the playoffs was the most watched in 33 years.
The 76ers’ 109-100 Game 7 win at Boston last Saturday averaged 11 million viewers on NBC/Peacock, making it the most-watched first-round Game 7 ever and the most-watched first-round game in 27 years.
Each playoff game in the first round averaged 4 million viewers, which is a good number.
Two caveats: 1). The fact there were three Game 7s helped the ratings. 2). Numbers are being somewhat inflated by the fact that Nielsen is measuring out of market viewership to a greater extent than previous years.
Give viewers credit for finding the games. The NBA hasn’t made it easy.
After viewers became accustomed to Saturday night playoff games on ABC for years, NBC was given Game 7 of the 76ers-Celtics series, mostly so that NBC could achieve its goal of airing an NBA playoff game after the Kentucky Derby.
After Amazon Prime carried games mostly on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturday afternoons all season, NBA playoff games are now suddenly appearing on Amazon on Mondays (Game 4 of Lakers-OKC next Monday) and on NBC this coming Saturday afternoon (Game 3 of Pistons-Cavaliers).
And after carrying some double-headers in recent weeks, NBC curiously opted to air only single games on Monday and Tuesday this week (the series openers of Knicks-76ers and Lakers-OKC), and stuck its two other playoff games those nights on Peacock.
That was unfortunate, because Monday’s Minnesota-San Antonio game that was relegated to Peacock and NBC-SN was far more entertaining than the Knicks-76ers blowout.
In this new 11-year media deal, NBC has the autonomy to place some playoff games only on Peacock and NBC-SN, its previously shuttered sports cable network that has been brought back to life but is in less than a third of U.S. homes.
Viewers generally are smart enough to find the games, and the ratings show they have. But if you didn’t have a Peacock or Amazon streaming subscription before this season, accessing all the playoff games is costing you more than it ever has.
▪ Things I like about NBC’s coverage: Mike Tirico is superb at everything he does, and Noah Eagle is blossoming into a star. His cadence, dry humor, voice inflections and snappy one-liners are eerily similar to his father, Ian’s…
Robbie Hummel, the former Purdue All-American, was a very solid hire, and his presence alongside Grant Hill and Eagle improved the quality of the two Peacock games this week.
Hummel also is a candidate to someday replace Bill Raftery on CBS’ lead college basketball announcing team if Raftery ever retires. Raftery has said he is a “couple of years” older than his “listed” age of 83. In quite a coincidence, the Noah Eagle/Hummel/Hill booth on Peacock NBA games might become an Ian Eagle/Hummel/Hill booth on CBS Final 4 coverage in a post-Raftery era.
Things I don’t like: The NBC studio has three big names (Carmelo Anthony, Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter) but seldom says anything remotely memorable or particularly entertaining. It’s the weakest studio crew of the three rights-holders (ESPN, Amazon, NBC)… I’m still in disbelief that NBC lead sideline reporter Zora Stephenson didn’t ask Joel Embiid about his knee after he limped through the final two minutes of Celtics-76ers Game 7.
▪ Speaking of Peacock, NBC’s streaming service will have exclusive coverage of five Marlins games this season, including Sunday against Washington. Four of the games will start between noon and 12:15; the other, on July 6, will be a Marlins-at-Athletics game at 4:30 p.m. on a day in which Peacock has exclusivity to every MLB game.
None of those five games will be available on Marlins.TV or where you normally watch Marlins games.
The Marlins have three games scheduled for FS-1, but the team is permitted to stream those games.
▪ Samantha Rivera, who left her job as CBS 4’s No. 2 sportscaster last month, was hired by ESPN for a unique job in which she will appear on ESPN Deportes and ESPN’s English and Spanish digital platforms.
Per ESPN, Rivera — on all three of those platforms — “will serve as host and contribute with reporting, storytelling and appearances focused on some of the biggest stories in sports. She will also contribute to SportsCenter.”
“To be part of such an iconic brand like ESPN is an honor I don’t take lightly,” she said. “The opportunity to work across English- and Spanish-language shows at the mecca of sports television is a dream realized turned reality, one I’ll forever be grateful for.”
Rivera knew she had the ESPN gig lined up when she left CBS 4, but wasn’t able to disclose it publicly at the time.
Rivera, who starts at ESPN on May 11, previously worked in her hometown of Chicago, as well as Marquette, Mich., Rockford, Ill., and San Diego. A graduate of DePaul University, Rivera will be based at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Conn.
Rivera was unflappable during her three years at CBS 4, as she displayed when she elbowed a rowdy fan who tried to interrupt her live shot after a Panthers-Golden Knights Stanley Cup Finals game in Las Vegas.
▪ Quick hits: Like Tony Dungy, Chris Simms won’t be retained on NBC’s NFL studio show on Sundays. But he will still do college football studio shows and other assignments for NBC. Mike Tomlin is NBC’s new Sunday NFL studio analyst....
CBS reportedly is eyeing quarterback Russell Wilson and former Carolina linebacker Luke Kuechly for NFL studio roles. The network needs reinforcements in the studio after J.J. Watt was moved to games last season and Matt Ryan left for a front-office job with the Falcons in January...
The NFL schedule was supposed to be released next week (and still might be), but NFL broadcasting executive Mike North told a Buffalo radio station that it could be delayed a week because the network is still working on finding a rights-holder for a new five game package. YouTube is reportedly the front-runner for those games.
Warriors forward Draymond Green is joining “Inside the NBA” on ABC and ESPN this week, as he has done at times in the past. Turner Sports produces the show and makes talent decisions.
▪ In a move that nobody particularly wanted, ESPN is reuniting Skip Bayless with Stephen A. Smith for “First Take” at 10 a.m. Friday. This marks the first time the duo has appeared together on the program since June 2016. ESPN says it’s a one-time deal. Bayless left for a job at FS-1 in 2016 but left FS-1 in 2024.
This story was originally published May 6, 2026 at 10:03 AM.
