Ad Disclosure
Kobe Gave the Sixers Their Biggest TV Audience in Three and a Half Years
By Jim Adair
Published:
Kobe Bryant’s return to Philadelphia for his final game in his “hometown” led to the Sixers’ first win of the season, as well as the closest they’ll get to a sell-out. On top of that, Kobe gave Comcast SportsNet their best ratings for a Sixers game since we were getting mad at Bryz. According to CSN Philly President and General Manager Brian Monihan (via Philly Business Journal):
Tuesday night’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers scored a 2.8 household rating (82,700 households), the highest rated regular season game since the Feb. 29, 2012, matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder, and up 109 percent from this season’s year-to-date average.
The game’s rating peaked with a 4.8 rating during the fourth quarter as the Sixers closed in on that elusive first win.
The good news for CSN is that ratings for Sixers games this year have increased from 0.68 percent — second worst in the NBA — to about 1 percent, despite the team’s historically bad on-court performance.
What happened in that Feb. 2012 game against the Thunder? Iggy and Jrue dropped 18 each while Lou Williams (played in both games) dropped 16 off the bench as the 21-15 Sixers lost to the Thunder. That feels like a lifetime ago.
And that one percent number still falls wells below the current Flyers (2.2%), Phillies (3%) and Eagles Post Game Live (3%) numbers. Even most of those process-trusters aren’t watching every game. It’s exhausting.
When he's not writing about sports here or ranting about them on Twitter, Jim is probably watching X-Files on Netflix or drinking a beer somewhere. Jim has nothing against hockey, it's just not his style. He once met Duce Staley at a Sixers game.