What Miami Dolphins and Miami Heat ratings reveal this week. And ESPN’s Monday night party

A quick six-pack of media notes on a Thursday:

▪ The Miami Dolphins’ Week 1 rating improved a bit from last year’s historically low numbers, but they’re still nowhere close to levels from just a few years ago.

And it’s notable that the Dolphins’ opener against New England on CBS on Sunday drew more local eyeballs than Game 1 of the Miami Heat’s Eastern Conference finals series against the Boston Celtics, though it’s important to note that fewer could watch the Heat because it was on cable.

The Dolphins-Patriots opener on WFOR-CBS 4 was seen in 10.7 percent of Miami-Fort Lauderdale homes with TV sets, equal to a 10.7 local rating. That’s a bit better than many games last year but not at the level of the 13 to 19 ratings that Dolphins games generated locally most of the past decade.

One ratings point in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market equals 16,522 homes.

In processing ratings, keep in mind that cable news viewership is way up and overall TV viewership is down. So both of those are factors.

But home team NFL ratings are usually much better in the home market than what the Dolphins have produced in recent years, particularly the past two.

The Boston rating for Dolphins-Patriots was a 29.2. Despite a late-night start, the Tennessee-Denver game did a 17.7 in Nashville.

Notably, the Raiders’ first game as a Nevada-based team drew only an 11.5 rating in Las Vegas.

As for the Heat rating for Game 1, the game drew an 8.7 local rating on ESPN, making it the most-watched program on local television on Tuesday, and the Heat’s most-watched playoff game since 2016.

The Miami-Fort Lauderdale market’s Heat rating peaked at a 12.2 during overtime; coincidentally, the Dolphins rating also peaked at a 12.2.

Now here’s the important caveat with any Dolphins/Heat ratings comparison: The Dolphins have a big built-in edge because their game was carried on over-the-air television whereas the Heat’s game was on cable, which shrinks the amount of homes that have access to it.

From a national standpoint, Game 1 of Heat-Celtics averaged 4.01 million viewers, marking the least-watched conference finals game since 2007, when 3.9 million tuned in a Jazz-Spurs Game 5.

But I would attribute that in large part to the odd 6:30 p.m. start time.

Viewership fell 27 percent from Game 1 of last year’s East finals on TNT, which began two hours later.

Conversely, Game 7 of Clippers-Denver later Tuesday night averaged 5.23 million viewers on ESPN, the highest of the playoffs to date.

But those two games Tuesday delivered the day’s two highest-rated programs in adults 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54.

▪ On the exact day of the 50th anniversary of the birth of “Monday Night Football,” ESPN will present a megacast of the Saints-Raiders game next week.

ESPN will carry a traditional broadcast, with the new announcing team of Steve Levy, Brian Griese and Louis Riddick. It will be simulcast on ABC, which televised the first MNF game between the Jets and Browns on Sept. 21, 1970.

ESPN2’s simulcast will feature Rece Davis, from ESPN’s studios in Bristol, Connecticut, and Kirk Herbstreit, from his home in Nashville, in a virtual atmosphere, with a “free-flowing conversation with various guests, from a wide spectrum of backgrounds, who will drop in and out throughout the game.”

Also, The Killers will perform at halftime from the Caesars Palace rooftop, with ESPN carrying that live.

Herbstreit, incidentally, aced his Steelers-Giants MNF assignment with Chris Fowler this week. Their work Monday left no doubt those two would be well-equipped to work NFL games full-time, though Herbstreit has said he would do it only if he could continue calling college games, as well.

▪ The NBA is having a more difficult time figuring out when to schedule the Eastern Conference finals than solving a Rubik’s Cube.

As of Thursday afternoon, no schedule had been announced past Saturday’s Game 3. Two issues are in play:

1) The conundrum of whether to schedule Game 4 late Monday afternoon, before ESPN’s Las Vegas-New Orleans “Monday Night Football” game, or wait until Wednesday to play Game 4. There’s also a potential Game 7 conflict with a Saints-Packers Sunday Night Football game on NBC. ESPN’s sensitivity to NFL/NBA conflicts is understandable, because NFL games have crushed NBA games in two instances when they competed last week.

2) If the Heat and Celtics play every other day, they could finish well before the Lakers-Nuggets Western finals, which starts Friday. So there’s a competitive advantage issue also in play here.

UPDATE: The NBA announced late Thursday night that Game 4 won’t be played until Wednesday night. Here’s my story on that.

▪ Two things we really like:

1) The new cast of ESPN’s “NFL Live,” featuring Laura Rutledge, Dan Orlovsky, Marcus Spears, Mina Kimes, Adam Schefter and on some days, Keyshawn Johnson. That group has achieved immediate chemistry, and Spears’ humor and infectious personality inject a needed dynamic. ESPN also smartly gave a more prominent role to Schefter, with a news segment at the top of every show.

2) TNT did excellent work its recent five-part series discussing race relations and racial injustice in America, with Cari Champion, Charles Barkley, Dwyane Wade, Jemele Hill and Draymond Green all offering thoughtful, cogent commentary.

The series, called The Arena, returns with new episodes before Games 1 through 4 of the Western Conference Finals, beginning at 7 p.m. Friday. NBA Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas joins the cast for the new episodes.

▪ Quick stuff: Kenny Albert — who had been in Canada calling NHL playoff games for NBC — will be required to skip his second consecutive Fox NFL game in accordance with United States/Canada quarantine restrictions… Vince Carter joined ESPN as an NBA studio analyst… NBC gave Saturday’s Notre Dame-USF football game to corporate partner USA Network because U.S. Open golf is airing on NBC.

▪ Markets getting Dolphins-Bills on CBS on Sunday: Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Naples-Fort Myers, West Palm Beach, Tampa, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Buffalo, Elmira/Corning and Erie. Spero Dedes and Adam Archuleta have the call. Here’s the full Week 2 maps, courtesy 506sports.com.

Here’s my Thursday 6-pack with Miami Hurricanes nuggets.

Here’s my Thursday Dolphins piece with a look at how their rookies played in Week 1.

Here’s what Brian Flores said at his Thursday press conference.