Prematurely written off as a sweep, the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals is starting to pick up momentum.
Game 4 of the Cavaliers/Raptors NBA East finals had a 5.0 overnight rating on ESPN Monday night, down 17% from Warriors/Rockets last year (6.0) and down 4% from Pacers/Heat in 2014 (5.2). Compared to Game 4 of last year’s Hawks/Cavaliers ECF on TNT, overnights pulled even.
The Raptors’ win, which peaked at a 6.8, tied the lowest overnight for Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals since at least 2008. With that said, it was the top rated game of the series in the metered markets, comfortably topping the previous high of 4.4 for Game 2.
Game 3 of the series on Saturday night finished with 5.4 million viewers, down 5% from Warriors/Rockets last year (5.7M) and down 21% from Pacers/Heat in ’14 (6.8M). It also trailed last year’s Hawks/Cavaliers game on TNT by 31% (7.8M).
It was the least-watched Game 3 of the East finals since Pistons/Cavaliers in 2007 (4.4M) and the least-watched regardless of conference since Spurs/Grizzlies in 2013 (4.9M). Even so, it was the first game of the series to pull within single-digits of last year.
For the night, Game 3 was the top primetime program on any network in viewership and adults 18-49 (2.1). It easily topped competing coverage of the NASCAR All-Star Race on Fox Sports 1 (3.3M, 0.7 A18-49), the NHL conference finals on NBC (2.3M, 0.6 A18-49) and Major League Baseball on FOX (2.2M, 0.5 A18-49).
(Mon. numbers from ESPN; Sat. numbers from ShowBuzz Daily)
