The NBA Finals got off to its best start ever on ABC, and by a wide margin.
Game 1 of the Cavaliers/Warriors NBA Finals earned a 12.9 overnight rating on ABC Thursday night, up 24% from Heat/Spurs last year (10.4), up 22% from Spurs/Heat in 2013 (10.6), and easily the highest for a Game 1 since Nets/Lakers on NBC in 2002 (13.0). The previous high over that span was more than a full point lower — an 11.8 for Heat/Thunder in 2012.
Going back further, the 12.9 overnight is the third-highest for Game 1 of the NBA Finals since 1998, behind only Nets/Lakers in 2002 and Sixers/Lakers in 2001 (15.2).
The 12.9 is also the eighth-highest overnight for any NBA Finals game since ABC resumed airing the event in 2003, and the third-highest when series-clinching games are excluded. As should surprise no one, it marks a dramatic improvement over the Cavaliers’ last appearance in the NBA Finals, topping Cavaliers/Spurs Game 1 in 2007 by 63% (7.9).
The Warriors’ overtime win earned a higher overnight than every single game of last year’s Spurs/Heat NBA Finals, topping the clinching Game 5 by 10%.
Game 1 earned a 41.4 rating in Cleveland, up 20% from Cavaliers/Spurs in 2007 (34.3) and the market’s highest overnight for an NBA game on ABC. It earned a 28.9 in the Bay Area, also a record for the market on ABC. The record numbers could not match the most recent World Series openers in each market — a 47.5 in Cleveland for Indians/Marlins in 1997 and a 29.3 in the Bay Area for Giants/Royals last year.
Columbus, OH (21.1), Memphis (19.9) and Norfolk, VA (16.5) rounded out the top five. Atlanta ranked eighth with a 15.6 rating, which topped every game of the Cavaliers/Hawks Eastern Conference Finals.
Thursday’s overnight peaked at a 15.6 from 11:30-11:45 PM ET.
(Thu. news from ESPN Media Zone)
