Part 4/7:

While the NBA sought to maintain relevance with its own slate of four games, none managed to surpass an average of 8 million viewers. ESPN touted that the NBA numbers were up 84% from the previous year, yet a deeper dive reveals that the significant increase may not be as impressive as it seems. Comparatively, last year's Christmas games aired on ESPN, a cable network, while all games this year were accessible on ABC, a more widely available platform. The accessibility of ABC likely inflated the viewer numbers.