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3w ago

NBC's Sunday Night Basketball Debut Delivers One of Season's Top Audiences

NBC used combined Nielsen plus Adobe streaming figures to include Peacock viewers, complicating comparisons to Nielsen-only rivals.

Feb 1, 2026; New York, New York, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward Rui Hachimura (28) looks to pass the ball against New York Knicks guard Landry Shamet (44) and forward OG Anunoby (8) during the third quarter at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images
Brad Penner-Imagn Images

Overview

  • Lakers–Knicks averaged 4.5 million viewers across NBC, Peacock and Telemundo using Nielsen + Adobe data, with a peak near five million.
  • Thunder–Nuggets averaged 2.9 million, setting a record for a late-Sunday regular-season telecast, and the two-game average came in at 3.7 million.
  • The primetime game was the most-watched Sunday night regular-season NBA broadcast since 2002 excluding Christmas, with broader Sunday comparisons reaching back to 2018.
  • The debut far outpaced recent norms, as last season’s regular-season games averaged about 1.53 million across ABC, ESPN and TNT, while ABC’s latest Saturday primetime game drew 1.93 million.
  • The 4.5 million average ranked as the weekend’s largest sports audience despite the Grammys on CBS, with attention now on whether the audience holds when the series returns Feb. 22 for Celtics–Lakers.