NBC flexes upcoming ‘Coast 2 Coast’ schedule, switches up doubleheader timeslot

NBC Sports announced changes to its upcoming NBA broadcast schedule on Saturday.

In a move made in primetime heaven, Lebron James, Luke Dončić, and the Los Angeles Lakers will host the Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons in a game flexed into NBC Sports’s Coast 2 Coast Tuesday timeslot on Dec. 30 at 10:30 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.

It replaces the scheduled Sacramento Kings-Los Angeles Clippers game in that spot initially. That game will now be broadcast only in local markets.

NBC is also changing how it handles doubleheaders on Dec. 23, Dec. 29, and Dec. 30, with both games broadcast across the U.S.

Here’s the revised schedule:

The Dec. 23 Rockets-Clippers matchup and the Dec. 29 Mavericks-Trail Blazers matchup have shifted up from 11:00 p.m. ET.

These will be the first national doubleheaders for NBC since Opening Night. More often, they’ve made an 8:00 p.m. ET game available to the Eastern, Central, and Mountain time zones while the Pacific time zone gets an 11:00 p.m. ET game. Local affiliates have had the option to carry both games.

As for why NBC would want to make this change, Sports Media Watch noted that the most recent Coast 2 Coast Tuesday regional window drew 3.2 million viewers, the most-watched of the season to date (which itself has been very successful so far). They also pointed out that both The Tonight Show and Late Night are likely to be in reruns during the final two weeks of December, creating opportunities for affiliates. Given that the holidays are a time when more people are home from work or have open schedules, it’s a good opportunity to maximize audience reach.