Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban took a shot at Fox News’s Tucker Carlson over ratings, but his dig didn’t tell the whole story.
Cuban responded to a tweet over the weekend that noted one of Carlson’s shows last week had an audience of more than 3.6 million people, while the two NBA prime-time games that night “combined for 2.6 million viewers.”
“In the advertiser coveted 18-49 demographic, our prime time outperformed Tucker in prime time by 215%,” Cuban said. “He did slaughter us in the 70+ plus demographic, so have to give credit there.”
Carlson, however, hosts one of the most viewed shows on cable news. In this year’s second quarter, the Fox News host had a record-setting 4.3 million viewers and 791,000 in the key 25-54 age demographic.
Cuban used a slightly different age range when discussing the coveted advertising demographic; however, Carlson leads there too. He was the most-watched cable news host in the demographic Cuban referenced, and towers over network competitors in the same age range.
Additionally, the NBA’s ratings have dipped since the league restarted in a bubble in Orlando, Florida, two weeks ago.
TNT, one of the networks that broadcasts nationally televised games during the season, saw a stark drop in ratings. After hosting the restart’s opening night, the number of viewers dropped by more than a million, which was more than a 50% drop during the games on the network the following week. Additionally, ESPN, the other network that airs the games, is averaging 1.4 million total viewers since the start of the season.
The NBA began its restart amid calls from players for social justice following the spotlight that has been put on systemic racism and police brutality. The players are sporting social justice slogans on the backs of their jerseys in addition to their surnames. Most players have also kneeled during the national anthem, a peaceful method of protest to raise awareness about the same issues.
Detractors believe that NBA’s social justice stance is ostracizing a population of the fanbase that doesn’t support the message.
