Despite garish playing floors and a quirky format that's pretty difficult to understand, the NBA's new In-Season Tournament seems to have achieved its core objective -- that is, increase fan interest in the early portion of the league's marathon 82-game regular season.
ESPN said it averaged 1.522 million viewers for eight "group play" round games conducted on Friday nights this month, which is about a 20% uptick over the 1.269 million viewers the network drew on average for five comparable non-tourney games on Friday nights in November 2022.
ESPN also said the highest rated In-Season Tournament game so far across all networks was the Nov. 10 contest between the Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns, which averaged 1.929 million viewers.
The Lakers, who won their group, have already advanced to the eight-team/four-game quarterfinals round, which will be televised exclusively by TNT on Dec. 4-5, and the Suns appear likely to also move on as a wild card.
ESPN holds the rights to the two semifinal games on Thursday, Dec. 7, with its Disney sibling ABC exclusively broadcasting the championship game on Saturday, Dec. 9.
ESPN.com is keeping the In-Season Tournament standings and bracket.
