Despite airing on a Saturday night with a presumably weak softball lead-in, the final game of the Pacers/Knicks series was a solid draw on ESPN.
Game 6 of the Knicks/Pacers second round NBA playoff series drew 4.9 million viewers on ESPN Saturday night, down 29% from Sixers/Celtics Game 7 on ABC last year (7.0M).
Compared to other second round Game 6 telecasts, Knicks/Pacers outdrew Thursday’s Spurs/Warriors clincher (3.8M), but trailed both of last year’s games — Celtics/Sixers (5.4M) and Heat/Pacers (6.9M).
The Pacers/Knicks series was an underwhelming draw on cable, with each of the four games on ESPN and TNT drawing fewer than five million viewers. By comparison, the networks topped five million for four Spurs/Warriors games, four Heat/Bulls games, and two Grizzlies/Thunder games.
(Sat. numbers from The Futon Critic)
