While the series is unlikely to live up to expectations, Warriors-Rockets ratings were everything TNT could have asked for Monday night.
Monday’s Warriors-Rockets NBA Western Conference Finals Game 1 earned a 5.4 rating and 8.82 million viewers on TNT, up 17% in ratings and 9% in viewership from Spurs-Warriors last year, which aired on ABC in a Sunday afternoon window (4.6, 8.1M) and up 2% and 1% respectively from Thunder-Warriors on TNT in 2016 (5.3, 8.71M).
Compared to TNT’s conference final opener last year, Cavaliers-Celtics on a Wednesday night, ratings increased 42% (from 3.8) and viewership 37% (from 6.4M).
Golden State’s win, which peaked with 10.0 million viewers from 10:45-11 PM ET, was the highest rated and most-watched NBA conference final opener since Celtics-Heat on ESPN in 2012 (5.6, 9.0M). Among Western Conference series, it ranks as the top Game 1 in 16 years — since Lakers-Kings on NBC in 2002 (6.3, 9.2M).
Game 1 delivered the highest NBA rating of the season and the second-largest audience. Cavaliers-Warriors on Christmas Day had a slightly larger audience (8.822 vs. 8.820 million).
The NBA dominated Monday night in the key adult demographics. Warriors-Rockets scored a 3.5 rating in adults 18-49, up 21% from last year’s Game 1 on ABC (2.9) but down 4% from 2016 (3.7). The 3.5 topped every other television program in nearly a month — since ABC’s reanimated “Roseanne” pulled the same number on April 17.
The NBA took the top two spots in the demo Monday night, with “Inside the NBA” ranking second at a 1.7 — coming in ahead of NBC’s “The Voice” (1.6). The NBA also took the top two spots in adults 18-34, with the game at a 3.2, “Inside” at a 1.5, and no other TV program exceeding a 1.0.
The Bay Area led all markets with a 21.5 rating, up 25% from last year (17.2) but down 8% from 2016 (23.4). Houston turned in a 14.7, down 11% from the Rockets’ previous conference final opener in 2015, also against Golden State (16.6).
New Orleans was the top neutral market with an 11.6, followed by Sacramento (10.8) and Birmingham (9.2).
[Numbers from TNT, with additional info from ShowBuzz Daily 5.15]
