2017 NBA Awards ratings released and they’re actually not horrible

Monday night featured the inaugural NBA Awards on TNT, and the ratings showed that the event actually wasn’t the failure that some thought it’d be.

The NBA held its inaugural NBA Awards show on TNT on Monday night, and it looks like we may be seeing many more over the next few years after the ratings were released.

The show, hosted by Drake, was headlined by Russell Westbrook taking home MVP honors, along with a ton of other NBA talents taking home awards throughout the night and legends making appearances.

While many thought it’d just be another sports awards show and not many would actually tune in, the event actually pulled in solid ratings. According to ratings from SportsMediaWatch.com, the show reportedly had 1.79 million viewers, which is better than most regular season games the league puts on television.

As far as other awards shows, it couldn’t come close with the audience for the ESPY Awards, which covers every sport’s audience and should be at the top, and still has work to do to match the NFL Honors and Heisman Trophy presentation shows.

Another big reason for the show doing well might’ve been Drake as the event’s host. The Toronto-born rapper has plenty of experience hosting sports awards shows, as he has memorably hosted the ESPYs before and brought that skill-set to the NBA Awards Monday night. Who knows how the show would do with another host, but for now, it looks like putting Drake in that spot was a good choice.

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It’s incredibly promising for the league to see its show pull in more viewers than the college football awards and NHL awards shows combined, especially for the inaugural event. If the NBA Awards can keep this pace up, it may become a mainstay as far as sports awards shows and could eventually compete with the NFL for the top.