Duke forward Cooper Flagg headlined the 2025 NBA Draft as the No. 1 selection by the Dallas Mavericks, kicking off the event from Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. The opening round of the proceedings featured several other standout collegiate players joining NBA franchises, some of whom included Dylan Harper, V.J. Edgecombe and Ace Bailey. Yet viewership for the event across ESPN and ABC was down 14.5% from the previous year, averaging 3.77 million viewers for its broadcast on Wednesday night.
Although the overall viewership number was down, consumption of the first half-hour of the proceedings averaged 5.05 million viewers, marking a 4% proliferation from the previous year. Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch divulged that consumption of the event as a whole peaked at 5.16 million viewers during the 8:15 p.m. EST quarter-hour. The NBA iteration of the Draft is the second most-watched in all of sports after the NFL event, which averaged 13.6 million viewers for its opening night across ESPN, ABC and NFL Network.
The ESPN presentation of the NBA Draft attained a 1.0 rating and averaged 2 million viewers on Wednesday night, the latter of which is down 10% year-over-year. In addition, Douglas Pucci of Programming Insider reported that the broadcast had a 0.79 rating among Adults 25-54. This broadcast featured Malika Andrews as the host with analysts Jay Bilas, Kendrick Perkins and Andraya Carter, along with contributions from Shams Charania, Bobby Marks and Jonathan Givony. ESPN was live on site from Barclays Center and aired episodes of NBA Today and NBA Today: Draft Red Carpet Special preceding the selections.
The ABC broadcast of the NBA Draft featured Kevin Neghandi as the host with analysts Stephen A. Smith and Bob Myers, along with reporting from Monica McNutt and Marty Smith. Lewis shared that the presentation had a 19% decline in average viewership, accumulating 1.78 million viewers and a 1.1 rating on the night. Among the Adults 25-54 demographic, the Round 1 telecast on ABC garnered a 0.51 rating and 6-share for the night.
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