Michael Jordan may not be able to elevate like he did during his days with
the Chicago Bulls, but ratings leaped for TBS Superstation Tuesday night during
his latest comeback to the National Basketball Association.
The Oct. 30 contest between Jordan's Washington Wizards and the New York
Knicks garnered a 3.3 rating (2.8 million households), according to Nielsen
Media Research. That performance set an NBA regular-season season-premiere mark
for basic cable.
That number also represented a 200 percent jump from Turner Sports' 1.1
regular-season average with the NBA during the 2000-01 campaign, and it was up
106 percent from the 1.6 generated by the Knicks and the Philadelphia 76ers
during last season's tip-off game.
Sister network Turner Network Television took its first turn with 'His
Airness' Thursday night, covering the Wizards versus the Atlanta Hawks.
As was the case Oct. 30, sports' fans attention was no doubt diverted, this
time by game five of Major League Baseball's World Series between the New York
Yankees and the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Game three of the World Series garnered a 15.4 national rating for
Fox.
