On TNT’s NBA studio show in January, Charles Barkley was exasperated. TNT had just carried a game where the hapless Knicks lost to Houston by 24 points. It was New York’s 14th consecutive loss, and the game wasn’t competitive in the second half.
Barkley joked that he would quit if TNT carried any more Thursday night games with the Knicks or the similarly woeful Los Angeles Lakers, who would end up winning just 17 and 21 games, respectively, on the season. TNT, though, was locked into its Thursday night schedule, which was created before Carmelo Anthony and Kobe Bryant suffered season-ending injuries. It had to carry several more games from both teams.
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TNT and the NBA hope to avoid Thursday night dud matchups.
Photo by: NBAE / GETTY IMAGES
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Thursday night NBA games have been a staple of TNT’s TV schedule since 1988, when it first started carrying league games. The league gave TNT the best games and made sure the network didn’t face much local RSN competition by keeping its Thursday night schedule light.
That will change this season as part of a detailed agreement between the league and TNT that will see 22 more Thursday night games on the schedule this season, or roughly one extra Thursday night game throughout the season. Last year, there were 58 NBA Thursday night games. For the coming season, the league has scheduled 80.
TNT will retain national TV exclusivity on Thursday nights, but it will face more local competition from regional sports networks carrying the extra games. TNT executives welcome the change, though, because it gives the network more flexibility to switch out of dud matchups.
The network’s regular-season Thursday night viewership dropped 5 percent last season.
For the coming season, the Lakers are scheduled to make six Thursday night appearances and the Knicks three, but now, TNT has more opportunities to switch out poor games if one of those teams (or any others on the slate) is having a disappointing season.
“We do the schedule way before the season starts and we try to adjust throughout the season as it goes,” said Turner Sports President Lenny Daniels. “This gives us more flexibility to change things.”
On March 10, for example, TNT is scheduled to show Cleveland at the Lakers. If either team is not competitive, the network could now switch to Phoenix-Denver for that night instead.
Similarly, on Jan. 28, TNT has scheduled Knicks-Toronto. As needed, TNT could switch out to air one of four other games instead (Atlanta-Indiana, Denver-Washington, Milwaukee-Memphis or Sacramento-New Orleans).
Daniels said Turner and the NBA had been discussing this type of change for at least five years. The NBA has wanted more Thursday night games to give it more scheduling flexibility. By opening Thursday nights up to more teams, the league will not have to schedule as many back-to-back games or have teams play four games in five nights as frequently. To that end, with the new schedule, the league has cut down the number of times teams play four games in five days from 70 last season to 27 this season. The league also reduced the number of back-to-back games from an average of 19.3 per team last season to 17.8 per team this season.
“There are two reasons for the change,” said Danny Meiseles, president and executive producer, content for the NBA. “One is teams rise and fall because of injuries and other reasons. Having more options for the premier games was something we mutually thought about. Coupled with that is [NBA Commissioner Adam Silver] has talked about the need to focus on player rest. Having more flexibility and having players more rested, we feel, makes for a better overall schedule.”
Meiseles said there were no issues on having more local coverage of Thursday night games competing with the TNT Thursday games.
“We all believe that as long as the best game airs on Turner we are all comfortable with that,” he said.
Daniels also said there is no concern from Turner’s perspective about those additional Thursday games airing on local RSNs.
“It will be better for everybody when we can move games when we need to,” Daniels said. “The play will be better. Players will be happier. It does a whole bunch of things across the board to make it better for everybody. We’re positioned to have a really good season.”
