Viewers can expect unusual matchups on networks
It is enough, quite frankly, to make a sports fan’s head explode: NBA Finals games competing with NFL games. ... A Hurricanes football game airing at the same time as a Miami Heat playoff game. … A potential Miami Marlins playoff series opposing a Heat postseason game.
Welcome to the bizarre new world for sports fans, where the unimaginable is now reality and stressful decisions have become the norm for networks, particularly ESPN, and viewers.
The race to reschedule games postponed by COVID-19 has created an unprecedented confluence of games that are providing a smorgasbord for sports fans but challenges for even the most skilled network programmers.
A look at some of the unusual conflicts facing networks, leagues and sports fans, and some background:
● NBA playoffs vs NFL:
The NBA has tried to minimize direct conflicts with NFL games but that has been impossible in some cases, and several more remain in the days ahead, including Lakers-Nuggets opposing Dolphins-Jaguars on Thursday, a potential Game 6 of Heat-Celtics airing against Saints-Packers on Sunday night, and two potential conflicts during the NBA Finals with Sunday night NFL games (Eagles-49ers and potentially Vikings-Seahawks).
ESPN, more so than TNT, has tried to avoid overlapping with pro football because the NFL has crushed the NBA playoffs in four head-to-head matchups over the past two weeks.
Two examples: Last Thursday, Bengals-Browns on NFL Network averaged 6.7 million viewers, compared with 3.5 million for Game 2 of Heat-Celtics. Sunday night’s Patriots-Seahawks game dominated Lakers-Nuggets to the point that it was the leastviewed NBA conference finals game since 2003.
The NBA knew it was impossible to avoid NFL conflicts altogether. But the league and ESPN have done all they can to minimize them, including skipping a Monday date this week in the Heat-Celtics series and scheduling NBA playoff games 45 minutes or more before primetime NFL games begin.
● MLB playoff games vs NBA postseason:
There will be a bunch of these conflicts in the next three weeks, with seven MLB first-round series airing — in an NCAA Tournament type presentation — on ESPN and ESPN2 next Tuesday through Friday. (Turner has the eighth first-round series.)
The NBA hasn’t announced whether a possible Game 7 of Heat-Celtics would air on ABC or ESPN — or on Tuesday or Wednesday — in part because of those potential baseball conflicts and the first presidential debate on Tuesday on ABC.
The original NBA Finals calendar given to cable operators had Games 1, 2 and 3 next Wednesday, Friday and Sunday on ABC, but that won’t be possible if either conference finals goes seven games.
And if the Marlins make the playoffs, there could be a conflict between one or two Marlins playoff games and a Heat game (either Game 7 of the Eastern Finals) or Games 1 or 2 of the NBA Finals.
What’s more, most or all NBA Finals games likely will compete with baseball playoff games. Keep in mind that NBA Finals series have out-rated World Series games four of the past five years.
● Golf vs. NFL and college football:
One major conflict with the NFL was avoided with the U.S. Open moving from Fox to NBC this past weekend. But another one looms in several weeks.
On Nov. 15, the final day of The Masters, CBS has no 1 p.m. NFL game — which is unprecedented — but every market must get a 4 p.m. game, with JetsDolphins among three 4 p.m. games on CBS that day. Meanwhile, on the third day of The Masters, CBS will air AlabamaLSU at 6 p.m. instead of the traditional 3:30 window.
CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus explained how it came down: “We were fortunate that the NFL accommodated us and gave us only late games the Sunday of The Masters, so we’re able to do what we did this past year, which is come on the air at 9 [a.m.] and finish by approximately 2:30 or 2:45, and then go right into NFL football. With our Saturday coverage of The Masters, the SEC accommodated us and moved the start time approximately to 6 p.m. so we can get off the air with Masters coverage at 5 to 5:30.”
● Stanley Cup Finals vs. everything:
Pity the poor NHL, which was not only saddled with a lowrated, underwhelming DallasTampa Bay finals, but also faces heavy competition, with every game opposing an NFL or NBA playoff game.
● NBA playoffs vs. college football:
ESPN/ABC didn’t want to oppose Heat-Celtics with MiamiLouisville last Saturday, but it was unavoidable once ABC’s prime time Virginia-Virginia
Tech game was canceled because of COVID-19.
Locally, 6.7 percent of MiamiFort Lauderdale homes with TV sets watched Game 3 of HeatCeltics, compared with 6.3 percent for the Hurricanes’ game against Louisville.
(One ratings point in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market equals 16,522 homes.)
Nationally, the Heat drew slightly more viewers on ESPN than the Canes on ABC.
On Saturday, UM-FSU on ESPN will oppose Game 5 of Lakers-Nuggets on TNT. That should be the final NBA/college football conflict this year.
● Sports vs. the presidential and vice presidential debates:
The first debate next Tuesday will oppose MLB playoff games; the second on Oct. 15 will compete with a Kansas City-Buffalo NFL game; the third on Oct 22 will oppose a Giants-Philadelphia NFL game.
The Oct. 7 vice presidential debate will conflict only with MLB playoff games. No NBA Finals games are expected to compete with any of those four debates.
NOTABLE
● Hall of Fame receiver Michael Irvin — who will be on NFL Network’s studio team for Thursday’s Dolphins-Jaguars game — was hit hard by COVID-19 this summer. He calls it the worst thing he has ever dealt with.
“I didn’t know I had it, and then I got real sick,” Irvin said on ‘The Rich Eisen Show.’ “I mean, a pounding headache for like four or five days. You couldn’t eat. You can’t sleep. You’ve just got to endure the pain. I went through about three weeks of hell.”
● Fox’s Joe Buck and Troy Aikman call the Dolphins game on NFL Net and WPLG-ABC 10.