With the Celtics playing two halves of competitive basketball — the second of Game 3 and the first of Game 4 — the Eastern Conference Finals put up mediocre numbers.
The five-game Cavaliers-Celtics NBA East Finals averaged a 3.7 rating and 6.3 million viewers on TNT, up 6% in ratings and 12% in viewership from last year’s six-game Cavs-Raptors series on ESPN (3.5, 5.6M) but down 12% and 7% respectively from a four-game Cavs-Hawks sweep on TNT in 2015 (4.2, 6.8M).
Compared to last year’s conference final on TNT, a seven-game series between the Warriors and Thunder, ratings and viewership fell 37% from a 5.9 and 9.9 million.
Cleveland’s easy win, which included blowouts by 44 and 33 points, topped only last year as the lowest rated Eastern Conference Finals since Cavs-Pistons in 2007 (3.5) and the least-watched since Celtics-Pistons in 2008 (5.9M). Including Western Conference series, it was the third-lowest rated conference final since 2007, ahead of only Cavs-Raptors last year and Spurs-Grizzlies in 2013 (3.1).
The last time LeBron James faced Boston in the conference finals, 2012, a much more competitive Heat-Celtics series averaged a 6.2 rating and 10.1 million viewers over seven games.
For the first time since 2007, neither NBA conference final averaged a 4.0 rating. Warriors-Spurs averaged a 3.9 and 6.5 million on ESPN/ABC.
