Knicks fever grips Gotham!
From left, MSG Network's Knicks post-game show with Bill Pidto, Alan Hahn and Wally Szczerbiak in the MSG Network studio on Oct. 11, 2012. Credit: MSG
With hockey on hiatus, the Knicks have picked up the winter sports slack, parlaying their fast start into large TV audiences.
Through their first 13 Nielsen-rated games on MSG, they averaged 3.22 percent of New York-area homes, up 68 percent from last season. (Three games could not be measured in the aftermath of superstorm Sandy.)
That does not include Thursday night's TNT tilt against the Heat, which averaged a healthy 5.9 in New York.
And get this: MSG's Knicks postgame, starring former Newsday scribe Alan Hahn and former Cold Spring Harbor star Wally Szczerbiak, is up 105 percent over 2011-12. (Note to TV executives: Hire more writers!)
But that is not my favorite postgame-related ratings tidbit of the week. This is: Mike Francesa's simulcast on the YES Network averaged 0.1 percent of area homes from 3:30 to 3:45 p.m. Tuesday.
In the ensuing quarter hour, during which SNY's postgame crew joined Francesa in-studio for some spirited Jets-bashing, the rating rose 400 percent, to 0.5.
Brilliant programming idea: Francesa on SNY's Jets postgame show. I'd watch that.
