NBA's Christmas Day slate averaged 5.25 million viewers according to final Nielsen ratings

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NBA's Christmas Day slate averaged 5.25 million viewers according to final Nielsen ratings

2024-12-31 08:52 Last Updated At：09:00

NEW YORK (AP) — The NBA’s five-game Christmas Day slate averaged about 5.25 million viewers per game across ABC, ESPN and its platforms, in final ratings released by the league and Nielsen on Monday.

All of the Yuletide games — San Antonio at New York in Victor Wembanyama’s holiday debut, Minnesota at Dallas, Philadelphia at Boston, Denver at Phoenix and Lakers at Warriors — saw year-over-year viewership increases.

The NBA’s lineup saw an 84% rise from 2023. One reason for the increase is that all five games were on ABC for the first time compared to two last year.

The Lakers’ 115-113 victory over the Warriors — a game pitting Olympic teammates LeBron James and Stephen Curry — averaged 7.91 million viewers and peaked with about 8.45 million viewers toward the end of the contest, the league said.

Those numbers represent the most-watched NBA regular-season game in five years.

The 12 p.m. EST game between the Spurs and Knicks averaged 4,997,000 viewers, making it the most-watched noon Christmas game since 2011. Part of the increase is also attributed to ESPN's “Dunk the Halls” animated alternate broadcast.

The game between the Suns and Nuggets averaged 3.9 million, making it the most-watched Christmas late-night contest.

Wednesday’s numbers pushed ESPN platforms' NBA viewership for the season up 5% from last season. Through 34 games, the games are averaging 1.96 million viewers.

For the NBA, those are all good signs amid cries that viewership is hurting.

“Ratings were down a bit at beginning of the season. But cable television viewership is down double digits so far this year versus last year,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said earlier this month. “You know, we’re almost at the inflection point where people are watching more programming on streaming than they are on traditional television. And it’s a reason why for our new television deals, which we enter into next year, every game is going to be available on a streaming service.”

AP NBA: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NBA

FBI says driver in New Orleans rampage acted alone, was '100%' inspired by Islamic State group

2025-01-03 07:37 Last Updated At：07:42

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Army veteran who drove a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year’s revelers in New Orleans acted alone, the FBI said Thursday, reversing its position from a day earlier that he likely worked with others in the deadly attack that officials said was inspired by the Islamic State group.

The FBI also revealed that the driver, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, an American citizen from Texas, posted five videos on his Facebook account in the hours before the attack in which he proclaimed his support for the militant group and previewed the violence that he would soon unleash in the famed French Quarter district.

“This was an act of terrorism. It was premeditated and an evil act,” said Christopher Raia, the deputy assistant director of the FBI's counterterrorism division, calling Jabbar “100% inspired” by the Islamic State.

The attack along Bourbon Street killed 14 revelers, along with Jabbar, who was fatally shot in a firefight with police after steering his speeding truck around a barricade and plowing into the crowd.

It was the deadliest IS-inspired assault on U.S. soil in years, laying bare what federal officials have warned is a resurgent international terrorism threat. It also comes as the FBI and other agencies brace for dramatic leadership upheaval — and likely policy changes — after President-elect Donald Trump's administration takes office.

Seeking to assuage concerns about any broader plots, Raia stressed that there was no indication of a connection between the New Orleans attack and the explosion Wednesday of a Tesla Cybertruck filled with explosives outside Trump’s Las Vegas hotel. The person inside that truck, a decorated U.S. Army Green Beret, sustained a gunshot wound to the head before the explosion, and a handgun was found at his feet inside the charred vehicle, authorities said.

The FBI continued to hunt for clues about the 42-year-old Jabbar, but said that a day into its investigation, it was now confident he was not aided by anyone else in the attack, which killed an 18-year-old aspiring nurse, a single mother, a father of two and a former Princeton University football star, among others.

The attack plans also included the placement of crude bombs in the neighborhood in an apparent attempt to cause more carnage, officials said. Two improvised explosive devices left in coolers several blocks apart were rendered safe at the scene. Other devices were determined to be nonfunctional.

Officials examined the possibility that individuals seen in surveillance video standing near one of the coolers may have been somehow involved in the attack. But authorities concluded that they were not connected “in any way,” though investigators still want to speak with them as witnesses, Raia said.

Investigators were also trying to understand more about Jabbar's path to radicalization, which they say culminated with him picking up a rented truck in Houston on Dec. 30 and driving it to New Orleans the following night.

The FBI recovered a black Islamic State flag from his rented pickup and reviewed five videos posted to Facebook, including one in which he said he originally planned to harm his family and friends, but he was concerned that news headlines would not focus on the “war between the believers and the disbelievers,” Raia said. He also left a last will and testament, the FBI said.

Jabbar joined the Army in 2007, serving on active duty in human resources and information technology and deploying to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, the service said. He transferred to the Army Reserve in 2015 and left in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant.

A U.S. government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly, said Jabbar traveled to Egypt in 2023, staying in Cairo for a week, before returning to the U.S. and then traveling to Toronto for three days. It was not immediately clear what he did during those travels.

Abdur-Rahim Jabbar, Jabbar's younger brother, told The Associated Press on Thursday that it “doesn’t feel real” that his brother could have done this.

“I never would have thought it’d be him,” he said. “It’s completely unlike him.”

He said that his brother had been isolated in the last few years, but that he had also been in touch with him recently and did not see any signs of radicalization.

“It’s completely contradictory to who he was and how his family and his friends know him,” he said.

Chris Pousson, 42, of Beaumont, Texas, said he became friends with Shamsud-Din Jabbar in middle school, describing him as someone who was quiet and reserved and did not get into trouble.

After high school, he said, they reconnected on Facebook around 2008 or 2009 and would message back and forth throughout the next decade.

“If any red flags would have popped off, I would have caught them, and I would have contacted the proper authorities,” he said. “But he didn’t give anything to me that would have suggested that he is capable of doing what happened.”

In New Orleans on Thursday, a still-reeling city inched back toward normal operations.

Authorities finished processing the scene early in the morning, removing the last of the bodies, and Bourbon Street — famous worldwide for music, open-air drinking and festive vibes — reopened for business by early afternoon.

The Sugar Bowl college football game between Notre Dame and Georgia, initially set for Wednesday night and postponed by a day in the interest of national security, was still on for Thursday. The city also planned to host the Super Bowl next month.

New Orleans "is not only ready for game day today, but we’re ready to continue to host large-scale events in our city because we are built to host at every single turn,” New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said.

Tucker reported from Washington, and Mustian reported from Black Mountain, North Carolina. Associated Press reporters Stephen Smith, Chevel Johnson and Brett Martel in New Orleans; Jeff Martin in Atlanta; Rebecca Santana, Alanna Durkin Richer, Tara Copp and Zeke Miller in Washington; Kristie Rieken in Beaumont, Texas; Darlene Superville in New Castle, Delaware; Colleen Long in West Palm Beach, Florida; and Michael R. Sisak in New York contributed to this report.