Like most of the games in the series, Game 6 of the Lakers/Suns Western Conference Finals was down from last year.
Saturday’s Lakers/Suns Game 6 drew a 4.8 U.S. rating and 8.2 million viewers on TNT, according to Nielsen fast-nationals, down 8% in ratings and 3% in viewership from Cavaliers/Magic Game 6 last year (5.2, 8.4 mil). There was no game on the comparable night in ’08.
Every game of the Lakers/Suns series had a decline in ratings and viewership compared to last year, with the lone exception of Game 1 (no game on the comparable night last year).
Despite the lower numbers, the Lakers/Suns series will likely finish as the fourth-highest rated Conference Final ever on cable — behind only Lakers/Timberwolves on TNT in ’04, Lakers/Nuggets on ESPN in ’09 and Cavaliers/Magic on TNT in ’09.
Half of the games in the series drew over 8 million viewers, a number surpassed by only 12 of the previous 71 (18%) Conference Final games on cable dating back to ’03.
Game 5 finished among the 10 highest rated Conference Final games on cable since ’99, and Game 3 finished in the top 15.
Still, the Lakers/Suns series was never able to measure up to either of last year’s Conference Finals. In a four-day span last year, the Lakers/Nuggets and Cavaliers/Magic series put up four of the five largest audiences ever for the NBA Playoffs on cable — setting a pace that this year’s games were very hard pressed to match.
(Turner Sports)
