It might have made for agonizingly contrived television, but America apparently couldn't quit LeBron James' "Decision". According to ESPN's Josh Krulewitz, LeBron's one-hour made-for-TV melodrama drew a 7.3 overnight rating for ESPN, including a 26 rating in Cleveland,12.8 in Miami, 10.7 in Chicago and 10.4 in New York (Seattle was the last market with a 2.4; having your NBA franchise stolen unsurprisingly makes people not care about the NBA).
Just to put that in perspective, CNBC's Darren Rovell points out that the 7.3 rating for "The Decision" was higher than LeBron's other major national television moment, when the Cavs got swept by the Spurs in the 2007 NBA Finals, which only drew a 6.2 rating.
So yes: Stu Scott, Jon Barry, Mike Wilbon and Chris Broussard hemming and hawing about where LeBron James might land, then "congratulating him on his decision", while James equivocated and answered painfully manufactured "questions" from Jim Gray to draw out the absurdity of it all drew more eyeballs than actual games that decided an actual championship that LeBron James played in. Draw your own conclusions about that.
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LeBron's 'Decision' To Leave The Cleveland Cavaliers For The Miami Heat Draws Record Ratings For ESPN
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The rating is even higher than the 6.8 Tiger Woods received for his press conference earlier in the year, which was on a multitude of channels, including the four big networks. So for LeBron’s decision to draw higher numbers clearly indicates two things: how far cable television has come over the years, and how great LeBron’s drawing power has become.
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by ZombieMonta on Jul 9, 2010 1:01 PM EDT reply actions
Or how much time ESPN spent hyping it.
Lifelong Arizona Cardinals/Chicago Bears fan [I have always lived in Arizona, dad is from Chicago].
I can't stand fair-weather/bandwagon fans, stick with your team, throughout the good and the bad. And don't switch to whichever team wins the Super Bowl each year.
by JoeCB1991 on Jul 9, 2010 1:59 PM EDT up reply actions
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