Black Lives Matter Messages Crash NBA, MLB Ratings
Aug 3, 2020
RUSH: How about this, folks. “Ratings Crash for NBA, MLB After Protest-Filled Debuts.†Who was it that predicted this was going to happen? I think it was your host. Your host here of 32 years and counting on the EIB Network.
“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.â€
The openers did okay, but after that (raspberry). Some of it could have been the fact that there’s no fans, but the NBA crashed. You want to hear some numbers? This comes from Outkick.com. Neither league did anything to write home about. As for the openers, Outkick reported the return of the NBA on TNT saw the following numbers: The Lakers and Clippers, 3.4 million. The Pelicans and the Jazz, 2.1 million.
Folks, that may sound like a lot of numbers. That’s nothing for fans who’ve been starved. I mean, NBA fans who’ve been starved of games since they were shut down in the early spring, late winter. That’s nothing, compared to what the average Lakers-Clippers game would be. Ditto Pelicans-Jazz.
Major League Baseball return numbers are also underwhelming. The Yankees and the Washington Nationals, four million. The Dodgers and the Giants, 2.8 million. That’s nothing to write home about. Ryan Glasspiegel of the Outkick.com website added more ratings numbers on Twitter. He said: “To be fair since I compared MLB vs NBA return night 1, here is night 2,†which is July 24th. “MLB (last Friday, ESPN), Mets-Braves (4p) – 922K.â€
Not even a million viewers. Now, let me tell you something, folks. I’m here to tell you that ESPN and TNT, all the regional sports networks that were televising these games were expecting — I could hear it in the announcers’ voices — they were expecting massive numbers based one thing. The fact the game had not been played since last season, that spring training had been interrupted by the coronavirus, and they assumed that Major League Baseball fans were chomping at the bit, even though they weren’t gonna be allowed back in the stadium, they were gonna watch on television. They couldn’t wait. They were just ready to burst with excitement.
And you could hear it — you know, I watched some of those games. Well, I didn’t stick with the whole thing but I tuned in because it’s my job, man, to know what’s going on out there. And I tuned in and I wanted to see what these games looked like with no fans. And, of course, I studied the announcers. And, man, I don’t want to call out any specific games because I don’t want to call out any specific announce crews. As you know, I don’t try to make it a point here of creating rivalries and ripping people by name simply on the basis of media performance.
Political is a different thing, but you could tell their excitement, “Oh, we’ve been so denied, oh, this is the greatest day in our lives, oh!†You could just tell from the announcers that they thought that the fans were chomping at the bit and were numbering in the millions. Mets-Braves — ESPN — this is after the opener, this is the second day, 922,000. The Brewers and the Cubs had one million viewers and the Los Angeles Angels and the Oakland A’s, 797,000 viewers.
This is not enough of an audience to get advertising revenues to, in any way, support and make up for the loss of actual fans in stadiums buying what they buy — tickets, concessions, souvenirs, and all of that. NBA, July 31st, night number two, you know, game number two. Celtics and Bucks, 1.3 million. Dallas Mavericks and the Houston Rockets, 1.7 million.
Now, for good measure, it’s been pointed out baseball can’t blame the coronavirus. The virus didn’t stop people from watching Brady and Tiger and Phil Mickelson and Peyton Manning play golf last May. So, folks, it is clear the American people, a majority, have no interesting in watching something with BLM all over the pitcher’s mound, Black Lives Matter all over the signage in ballparks. They don’t want to tune in and watch a bunch of players kneeling during the American national anthem. They just don’t want to see it.
And I hope the people in the NFL are watching this. I doubt it because I think Twitter runs American sports now. I think Twitter and Nike are running professional sports. We know they’re running the NBA, and we know that China is running the NBA. The NBA is in bed — Nike and China is who the NBA I think considers their loyalties to be aimed at.
But I’m telling you these ratings crashes have nothing to do with the fact there aren’t any fans in the stadiums. The American people just don’t want to be preached to by a Marxist, pro-communist organization while they are trying to get enthused and excited about the return of major league professional sports. It’s not complicated to understand at all.
