I knew this was going to happen.
Liberals were taking a victory lap over the big ratings grab for MLB ad NBA, they said the “silent majority” didn’t exist and Americans cared about supporting and promoting the “Black Lives Matter” movement.
But, I wasn’t buying it.
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When I heard that MLB and NBA had amazing opener numbers I knew once Americans saw the “BLM” pandering for themselves that they’d say “no thanks,” and tune out next time around…
And that’s exactly what happened.
As the NBA and MLB return from their coronavirus-imposed hiatus, it appears TV viewers are not interested in what the increasingly woke leagues have to offer.
With both baseball and basketball draped in all sorts of Black Lives Matter and social justice symbolism for their opening games, a substantially smaller number of fans tuned-in to the rest of the week’s games.
According to Outkick.com, neither league did well.
As for the opening games, Outkick reported that the return of the NBA on TNT saw the following numbers:
Lakers-Clippers: 3.4 million
Pelicans-Jazz: 2.1 millionESPN’s MLB return numbers were also underwhelming:
Yankees-Nationals: 4.0 million
Dodgers-Giants: 2.8 millionOutkick’s Ryan Glasspiegel added more ratings numbers on Twitter.
“To be fair since I compared MLB vs NBA return night 1, here is night 2,” (July 24) he wrote, adding:
MLB (last Friday, ESPN)
Mets-Braves (4p) – 922K
Brewers-Cubs(7p) – 1.0M
Angels-As (10p) – 797KNBA (last night ESPN) (July 31)
Celtics-Bucks (6:30p) – 1.3M
Mavs-Rockets (9p)- 1.7M
MLB really fell off after opening day. In general, both leagues aren't getting the audience one might expect from a nation that's been deprived of entertainment for months https://t.co/GazeoR9SNB
— Ethan Strauss (@SherwoodStrauss) August 2, 2020
And in case the NBA and MLB try and blame the sudden low ratings on COVID, there’s this little tidbit here…
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Turns out nearly 6 million people tuned in to watch Trump supporter Tom Brady duff around the golf course.
You could chalk sagging interest up to pandemic conditions, but 5.8 million tuned in to watch Tom Brady hit golf shots into the woods https://t.co/vIPxNc1uDi
— Ethan Strauss (@SherwoodStrauss) August 2, 2020
Americans haven’t changed their minds from two years ago when the NFL suffered a ratings and ticket plummet thanks to the disrespectful anthem kneeling.
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Just because the majority of us feel bad that George Floyd was killed doesn’t mean that we believe our sports and entertainment should be hijacked by a Marxist cop-hating/anti-American group.
We have a system and process for the Floyd family to go through and we certainly pray they get justice, but that doesn’t mean that our entire country should be burned to the ground or turned upside down because of it.
There is a lot of horror and bad stuff that happens to people every day in this country, and we need to be level-headed and not lose our marbles and go crazy and overboard.
If changes need to be made, push politicians and officials to make them, don’t revamp our sports, or hijack our freeways and neighborhoods.
This piece was written by Missy Crane on August 2, 2020. It originally appeared in WayneDupree.com and is used by permission.
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