Bucks-Raptors hit another viewership low in Game 4.
Tuesday’s Bucks-Raptors NBA Eastern Conference Finals Game 4 earned 5.30 million viewers on TNT, down a third from Celtics-Cavaliers on ESPN last year (7.94M) and down 25% from Celtics-Cavaliers on TNT in 2017 (7.05M). Ratings were not immediately available.
Compared to last year’s conference final Game 4 on TNT, Rockets-Warriors, viewership declined 37% from 8.37 million. Versus the last conference final to feature Toronto — which does not count toward U.S. television ratings — viewership fell 14% from 6.14 million for Cavaliers-Raptors Game 4 in 2016.
Toronto’s win was the least-watched conference final Game 4 since Spurs-Grizzlies in 2013 (5.21M), and the least-watched Game 4 in the Eastern Conference Finals since 2007 (Pistons-Cavaliers: 4.73M). It was the second game of the series to hit at least a six-year low, following Game 2.
Through Tuesday, seven of this year’s eight conference final games have declined from the corresponding game last season. The lone exception was Blazers-Warriors Game 2, which hit a ten-year high.
Game 4 had a 2.0 rating in adults 18-49, down 35% from last year’s ECF (3.1) and down 29% from 2017 (2.8). It also had a 1.7 in adults 18-34, down 39% from last year (2.8) and down 32% from 2017 (2.5). The game ranked first for the night on television in each of the young adult demographics.
Figures for Game 4 were delayed a day due to an odd glitch in which TNT’s NBA-related programming was mistitled as two airings of the movie “Central Intelligence.”
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 5.23]
