• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, Yesterday

The NBA on NBC has a message for local news and NBC late-night: Get out of the way!

The NBA’s return to NBC for the first time since 2002 starts Tuesday night with not one but two back-to-back games -- extending what used to be known as prime time to at least 12:30 a.m. Eastern, starting at 7:30 p.m.

The games will force “The Voice” and the Jimmy Fallon marketing competition show “On Brand” to find homes elsewhere.

But even more importantly, late-night local news will be pushed to approximately 12:30 a.m. Wednesday in Eastern cities, followed by Fallon’s “Tonight Show” at 1 a.m. and “Late Night with Seth Myers” at 2 a.m.

The traditional start of local news at 11 p.m. has been delayed for years following the NFL on NBC every Sunday during the football season.

But very generally speaking, those starts were pushed only to around 11:30 p.m., give or take a few minutes.

Pushing affiliates’ local news all the way to 12:30 a.m. on a more regular basis, during a season that is a lot longer than the NFL’s, is something new.

And unlike weekends, when late-night shows are not affected, the relocation of the late-night shows to the wee hours of the next morning will come almost every Tuesday night this season through Tuesday, April 7, due to the NBA games.

All of NBC’s games will be shared with Peacock, although not all of the games on Peacock will be shared with NBC.

After the NFL season, NBC will begin airing NBA games on Sunday nights, but no doubleheaders. Plans call for some or all of the Sunday games to be shared with both Peacock and Telemundo.

For its inaugural telecast on Tuesday, NBC has been given the first two games of the entire 2025-26 NBA season.

The four teams on NBC are the only NBA teams starting their seasons on Tuesday. Season openers for all other NBA teams start Wednesday and later in the week.

In Tuesday’s first game, the Houston Rockets visit the defending-champion Oklahoma City Thunder starting at 7:30 p.m. Eastern, followed by the Golden State Warriors visiting the Los Angeles Lakers scheduled for 10 p.m. Eastern.

NBC’s Tuesday night NBA games represent a milestone in the encroachment of major sports into weeknight network prime time -- not merely preempting traditional network TV shows, but kicking them out entirely for an entire season.