{"id":235916,"date":"2025-10-24T02:56:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T02:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/235916\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T02:56:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T02:56:08","slug":"nbas-return-to-nbc-averages-5-61m-viewers-most-watched-october-opening-night-in-15-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/235916\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA\u2019s return to NBC averages 5.61M viewers, most-watched October opening night in 15 years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">STAMFORD, Conn. \u2014 The NBA\u2019s return to NBC with a doubleheader on Tuesday night averaged 5.61 million viewers, the most-watched October opening night in 15 years according to Nielsen Big Data + Panel measurements and digital data from Adobe Analytics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">It was also an 87% increase over the 3 million that watched on TNT Sports last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The first game between the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets averaged 5.85 million viewers on NBC and Peacock.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Thrilling NBA Tip-Off Doubleheader Averaged 5.6 Million Viewers on NBC and Peacock.<\/p>\n<p>More: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/UbpeVJsKkj\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/UbpeVJsKkj<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6eIUyy9gPU\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/6eIUyy9gPU<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBC Sports PR (@NBCSportsPR) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBCSportsPR\/status\/1981474371421057505?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">October 23, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The audience for the Thunder\u2019s 125-124 double-overtime win peaked at 7.1 million for the second overtime period. It was the most-watched opening night game in the early window since 2010, when LeBron James made his debut for Miami. The Heat\u2019s game against Boston averaged 7.4 million on TNT.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The Rockets-Thunder game saw a 95% jump over last year\u2019s opener between the Celtics and New York Knicks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The second game between the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers averaged 5.11 million, making it the most-viewed game in the late window and a 76% increase over the Lakers-Minnesota Timberwolves game last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The Warriors\u2019 119-109 win over the Lakers started on Peacock before going to NBC during the second quarter after the first game was finished.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">According to Nielsen, NBC won the night in prime time among adults ages 18-49 across all networks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">NBC will air games on Tuesday nights and then also on Sunday nights beginning on February as part of its 11-year rights deal. Tuesday was the network\u2019s first NBA game since the 2002 NBA Finals between the Nets and Lakers.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STAMFORD, Conn. \u2014 The NBA\u2019s return to NBC with a doubleheader on Tuesday night averaged 5.61 million viewers,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-235916","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}