The Josh Innes Show - NBA Finals Ratings Stink

Episode Date: June 9, 2025

I'm not someone who likes to dive into sports tv ratings. If you want to watch something, watch it. If you don't then don't. That said, the ratings for Game 1 were the lowest since Covid. The ratings were down 19% from last year. I think I have a pretty easy answer for why this happened. I like that we've got two smaller market teams playing. I think it's good for sports when the fly over states are excelling. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please contact connects Ontario when it's 665312600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. It's fascinating to me to watch people continue to talk about the NBA Finals ratings. And that's another the NBA ratings discussion is one that is driven in large part or at least to start was driven in large part by right-wing media people because they just don't like basketball or they don't like the style of basketball

or they don't like how outspoken some of the basketball players are and it is their right to not enjoy basketball because of that as we've discussed on this podcast many times there are celebrities that I no longer like because of what they do politically or how they treat people politically like I'll give you an example. So last night I wasn't watching the Tony Awards at all. I wouldn't have any concept of what should be nominated or not. Although I did see Shucked at the Fabulous

Fox Theater here in St. Louis and Shucked was a nice musical about corn and I actually really enjoyed it and I saw the Neil Diamond musical and the Neil Diamond musical fucked but neither one of those were nominated for any sort of Tony Award or anything like that. I have no clue what the hell goes on at the Tony Awards. I don't care but Robert De Niro got up and multiple times while he was I guess presenting an award because when I think of the Tony Awards, I guess I think of

Robert De Niro, but he goes up and says fuck Trump multiple times. Now I am not some Trump stan, I'm not pounding the desk in favor of Trump or anything like that. In fact, I'm sick of all fucking politicians, I'm sick of everything. But that said, he goes up there multiple times and says fuck Trump but then he had to say it again so he could get a standing ovation. Now that's a very easy crowd to get a good reaction with a fuck Trump from because it's mostly I'm going to guess theater people and theater people do not strike me as Trump people but he goes up and he's like fuck Trump and they're all like yeah fuck

Trump fuck Trump and it's like like, yeah, fuck Trump, fuck Trump. And it's like, first off, Robert De Niro does not make good movies anymore. That's the main reason that I just I dismiss Robert De Niro because the shit he makes is pretty terrible. Like I watched a movie, I guess last week, two weeks ago, with him and Zach Braff. It's like a 70s. They're movie producers and they basically have to kill off Tommy Lee Jones to collect insurance. Concept was pretty good. Cast was full of solid people. Zach Braff is in there. Meal Hirsch was in there. Morgan Freeman was in there. Eddie Griffin like it had a lot of people in Zach Braff,

De Niro. That was a really good cast. And I'm like, the concept is good, the cast is good, but the movie kind of sucked. When was the last time you saw Robert De Niro in a movie and you were like, that movie was fucking good. And like some people might say The Irishman, The Irishman was a long, boring piece of shit. Like everybody wanted to blow it

because it's Scorsese and no it was boring and hard to follow and shitty and like the weird like computer generated Joe Pesci's and shit and I'm like I'm not here for this Robert De Niro makes shitty movies, but Robert De Niro is most known to a generation of people as being the fuck Trump guy. So he gets up there and oh fuck Trump right? So it's very easy to dislike people because of how they view things politically and how they handle it. And I think that's what's happened to right wing people too, and the way they've turned on basketball. It's a very easy thing to turn on. It's a very urban

sport and you know, so they've turned on it and that's they enjoy basking in the glow of the NBA struggling ratings wise although the NBA keeps signing rights deals that are through the fucking roof. So I don't know that the ratings really matter and of course people always compare these things to what they were in the 80s or the 70s. You just can't do that it doesn't work that way the world consumes sports differently, but anyway, let me play a couple commercials and we'll continue on this. The NBA Finals are finally here and after spending the playoffs all over the

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Pick 6 not available everywhere, including New York and Ontario. Voidware prohibited. One per new customer bonus awarded is non-withdrawable. Pick six bonus picks that expire in 14 days. Limited time offer terms at pick six dot draft kings dot com slash promos. So game one of the NBA Finals was the lowest rated game one since COVID-19. So you're talking five years now. Now, obviously the big talk in this is that it's too small markets. I think television market wise, I think you've got market 47

and you've got market 25. And of course, this becomes a big talking point because people like to either use this as a way to tell you that people don't watch the shitty NBA anymore or that you need more major market teams and like like compared to last year was down 19% of course last year was Boston and Dallas. Those are two very large cities. So just by nature, you're going to have more people watching those games because the two cities they play in are exponentially larger than Oklahoma City and Indiana. So it makes sense. Like I'm not going to like and you're going to have fewer like I don't believe let me put it this way. I don't think fewer people tune into a game across the country because it's the Pacers in Oklahoma City. More people in those other areas in those bigger cities that had a bigger

pot to draw from tuned in because their teams were in it like the outlier type people. Like if you like basketball, you'll probably watch the finals no matter who it is. But if you're in Boston, and you're kind of an outlier person, well there's a lot more outlier people in Boston and Dallas that are going to tune in because it's the NBA Finals and they live in the city and their friends are watching or they're at a bar watching whatever if that makes any sense. But I'm

so fucking sick of hearing about the small markets. Like the way people talk, it's like small markets shouldn't exist in sports because the television ratings aren't as big. Like shocker, the television ratings aren't as big like shocker the television ratings aren't as large when there's two teams in smaller markets involved and there's an obvious fucking answer for it I just told you the fucking answer for it but of course it turns into well the NBA sucks and nobody watches the NBA and blah blah blah blah blah and yes the NBA is not where it was

or no it's not where it was in 1998 or 1988 everybody fucking gets that but it's a different universe it's a different world people consume things differently people consume a lot of shit online they interact social media wise and huge numbers like it was a great game i mean I just get sick of people shitting on these small middle America towns. It's as if only LA and New York and Chicago and Dallas fucking matter like fuck them. You know what New York you're fucking you know the ratings aren't there because you're fucking team lost to Indiana. You're big bad New York people talk about the Knicks

like they're god's team. How about you beat Indiana and then New York is in and then millions of people will watch from New York because New York is in. Or LA, you made a trade for Luka Doncic and people were blowing you saying, uh-oh, look out for LeBron and Luka. You didn't get past the fucking first round. The Bulls haven't been worth a shit in basketball in 30 fucking years. So your three big, oh, and oh, by the way, your other big market, San Francisco, doesn't get out of the first fucking round either. So, people sit here and they shit on these smaller market teams and it's bullshit. Sorry that Philadelphia is not in the finals. Sorry that Chicago is not in the finals. It's Indiana and it's Oklahoma City and they are two cities that while they are smaller, I guarantee you are just as passionate or if not

more passionate about the two basketball teams that are playing in there. But people shit on these smaller teams and then what annoys me is when you get people who have no idea about ratings or how anything works. They just read this shit and they're like we don't even want to see these small market teams. So do you really watch a basketball a whole year and go God, I really hope Oklahoma City is not in, even though they won like 68 games, even though they've got a guy who might be

the future of the league in Shea Gilder's Alexander. No, we don't want to see them. We don't want to see them because they're from Oklahoma City. Fuck you. You got two really fun teams in the finals and I'm not telling you, you have to watch. If you don't like basketball, you don't like basketball. I've never tell someone to watch shit because I enjoy it or because I watch it, okay? I wouldn't do that. We talk about that all the time. But the way people talk about it is absurd. It's as if sports should only exist in these

like top 10 cities in the country. And once you get past them, nobody in the middle of America. And the same people that feel that way are probably the same people who ate the electoral college because they don't think that the people in middle America should matter and that their vote should matter and their voice should matter. The same people that'll tell you Memphis shouldn't have a team. You know who's passionate as hell about the NBA? Memphis. Oklahoma City. Indianapolis. Memphis. those people are just as passionate about basketball as LA allegedly is, as New York allegedly is, as Dallas allegedly is. So the fact that these smaller markets

keep getting shit on and part of it is because the NBA has not been a market that's been kind to the smaller or a league that's been kinder to these smaller market teams because of money and where these guys go play. Like yes, LeBron was in Cleveland, which is a smaller market. But for the most part, historically, what cities have been winning championships the most? LA. Who else has been winning championships? Boston. Who else has been winning championships? Chicago. Who else has won them?

Dallas, Miami. Big major metropolitan cities. Whereas in baseball, baseball historically, for instance, it's a sport where you haven't, at least historically, haven't had to be a major market team to win. You can be the St. Louis Cardinals and win 11 World Series. Now, obviously baseball's starting to take more of a hit now and you're starting to see the haves and the have-nots

really kind of pop up. That's why the Cubs are great. That baseball's actually worse about it because you've got the Cubs and LA and the Yankees and the Mets and like these major cities are the ones spending money and I think baseball is in danger of being a sport where the smaller markets do become less of a factor like Pittsburgh is never a factor and Pittsburgh is not a small city by any means but Pittsburgh, let's see

Cincinnati, St. Louis, all these kind of cities could be in danger because you know most of the money is going to the major cities they're spending they have more money to spend they're not capped on what they can spend. The NFL obviously is the greatest example of parody where Kansas City which has no chance of being a dominant baseball city or an NBA city that have the NBA then have hockey. Like it's you know hockey you can do well in smaller markets. You know the St. Louis Blues had that long stretch of going to the postseason like smaller market Columbus can have

moments in hockey like hockey is different. But like a sport like basketball tends to not lend itself to having success in smaller markets and they try to ignore those smaller markets. That's why I think it's an enjoyable experience to see Indiana and Oklahoma City play against each other in the NBA Finals. And by the way, Oklahoma City is good and Indiana is good. But like it, you always hear about this shit, but basketball particularly,

oh, they don't want to see those two small cities. If you like fucking basketball, watch it. If you don't, don't. But the idea of shitting on all of this and dumping on the NBA and always harping on the fucking ratings for this. And again, they say it's a 19% drop from, let's see, a 19% viewership decline from last year's NBA Finals opener. That percentage I guarantee you can be made up by the fact that you had two gigantic cities involved and you're like again if you're in Oklahoma City there aren't too

many people who are like I'm not a diehard of the thunder and I'm just going to watch because it's the finals. It's a small city. You go to Dallas where there's millions of people not everybody's watching every Mavericks game, but if they're in a championship run, it's the trendy. It's a small city. You go to Dallas where there's millions of people. Not everybody's watching every Mavericks game, but if they're in a championship run, it's the trendy thing to do and there are just more people to grab from there. This isn't difficult. But you know, like I'm so sick of living in this era where ratings are a huge talking point,

where everything, oh like no, most people don't even fucking understand it. They just want to dick swing about it. So shut the fuck up. If you like something, watch it. If you don't, don't. But the like the only sport that is, you know, kind of absolved from this is football because there's huge ratings all the time and the Super Bowl is always going to have a hundred plus million people watching. The football world is is ratings proof. I mean, it's they are a monster.

Every other sports league has some sort of issue with their ratings, but you focus on basketball because I think a lot of that comes from that right wing thing where a lot of right wing media people view basketball as a thing to shit on and they do. They don't really say the same shit about baseball, but baseball has just as many issues with people watching and smaller markets being kind of phased out in the name of big markets getting the big stars. This should be

something we embrace like a sports. I'm not saying to watch it, but we should be happy that there are two smaller market teams in a major professional sports league that are going out and in the NBA finals was it a perfect storm kind of year? Sure. You know, you dealt with injuries with like a team like the Warriors and they're old. You got, you know, Dallas lost Luca and they dealt with injuries. You know, Boston lost Tatum, but they were going to lose that series anyway. So you just start looking at, you

know, perfect storm type of season, but you get those two teams in the finals. That doesn't suck. That is good for overall sports in my opinion. Sports do not excel to me as a sports fan whenever year it's New York and Boston and something. I don't give a fuck about those teams. The media does. I don't. I think it's kind of fucking bad ass that little towns like Indianapolis, which is a great town by the way and Oklahoma

City. I've never been but Oklahoma City and Indianapolis are getting some fucking shine and I think it's cool. And maybe that comes from being a guy who spent most of my life in smaller towns. I didn't live in big cities until I got to Houston. But I root for the smaller teams like that because I think it's good for the overall health of a sport. If teams like the Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds

and Milwaukee Brewers are good in baseball, to me that's good because it shows the league is overall healthy. If everything is New York, LA, Boston, Chicago, that's super. But what about everybody else? There's 30 teams. There's 32 teams in this league, 30 teams at league, whatever. Like, you've got to start looking at shit and going, so the NFL is super successful, mostly because it's football and the world's addicted to football. America's addicted to football.

But the NFL is super successful, and part of what makes them successful is the parity of the league. Cincinnati can go to the Super Bowl. Kansas City can become a dynasty. The Packers are the Packers. You know who doesn't win a lot? The New York Jets, and they're in New York. The Dallas Cowboys, who have everything going for them, never win anything.

That's the fun part about the NFL. For the most part in other leagues you don't get that kind of parity and it's good when the smaller market middle America flyover teams are good. So that's why I'm embracing this one. All right, more to come.