Jordan’s Return Gives Tnt Needed Ratings Boost

The Chicago Bulls game at New York Tuesday night on TNT was seen in an estimated 3.2 million homes, the most for any regular-season game since Turner Sports began televising the NBA 11 years ago.

The A.C. Nielsen cable rating was a Turner record 5.1, compared to the old record of 4.9 on Dec. 11, 1987 for a Lakers-Celtics game on the superstation TBS.

The previous high for TNT was 3.3, equalled Friday night for Michael Jordan’s return to Chicago.

Those two games alone brought Turner Sports’ season average rating up to 1.7, pulling the cable network even with last year from 11 percent down.