LeBron James’ return to Cleveland draws big ratings

LeBron James‘ return to Cleveland drew big TV ratings Thursday night, according to TNT. The game drew a 5.0 overnight TV rating, besting the 4.1 overnight rating for the NFL Network’s telecast of the Philadelphia Eagles vs. the Houston Texans by 22 percent.

The NBA game averaged a huge 25.4 overnight rating in the Cleveland TV market, compared to 14.9 in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area. Nation ratings peaked at 6.7 from 8:15-8:30 p.m, then declined as the Heat took control. The pregame show from 8-8:11 p.m ET outdrew the game itself, pulling a 5.9 rating.

Despite the high-rating, the game did not beat out the first Celtics-Heat matchup. Darren Rovell tweets that the Heat-Cavs drew 7.05 million viewers, while the Celtics contest drew 7.3 million viewers. Headline Planet adds the game couldn’t outpace the season opener’s 5.6 rating.

One Comments for “LeBron James’ return to Cleveland draws big ratings”

1. James Reveron Says:
   December 3rd, 2010 at 7:01 pm

   Lebron and the miami heat did have a good game playing the cavs. However he and his team still need to improve that scoring party they are used to having. Lebron should drop at least 28 points a game, Wade should get 25 points per game and Bosh should land 12 points a game. Thats 65 points between the 3 of them. and their center should drop maybe 12 points and the point guard to land maybe 18 points. If they can get points in this range they would be an unstoppable force in the n.b.a east. Not too much for the lakers but a good team to match up with in the long run. That would be a N.B.A championship millions of people would watch.

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