Perhaps it was the lack of live sports programming for months that whetted the appetite of sports fans, or maybe it was the lack of new programming - sports or not - altogether.
Or, perhaps it was the NBA starting with the two Los Angeles teams - not coincidentally the first and second place teams in the west - along with high profile Rookie Zion Williamson.
Whatever the reason, TNT says the two games averaged 2.9 million total viewers, or twice what a regular season game averaged prior to the coronavirus pandemic shutdown.
It didn't hurt that both the Utah-New Orleans and Lakers-Clippers games went down to the wire with each game decided by a bucket.
