An all-time NBA playoff thriller hit a seven-year high on TNT.
Sunday’s Sixers-Raptors NBA semifinal Game 7 earned a 4.0 rating and 6.94 million viewers on TNT, down 5% in ratings but up 2% in viewership from the last semifinal Game 7 on TNT, Wizards-Celtics on a Monday night in 2017 (4.2, 6.82M).
The Raptors’ buzzer-beating win ranks as the most-watched first or second round Game 7 since 2012 (Sixers-Celtics: 7.01M).
Overall, it delivered the fifth-largest first or second round audience since 2012, behind four Warriors-Rockets games (three this year and one in 2016). Four of the top five, and five of the top eight, have come this postseason.
The numbers would likely have been larger if not for competition from HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” which had 12.5 million TV-only viewers Sunday night. TNT has been airing its Sunday night playoff games an hour earlier than usual (7:00 rather than 8:00 PM ET) in order to avoid the much-hyped final season of the series.
As one would expect, ratings and viewership were no match for the previous Raptors-Sixers Game 7, which took place a generation ago in 2001. That game, which saw Toronto lose on a missed buzzer-beater, had a 7.6 and 11.17 million on NBC.
Earlier Sunday, Blazers-Nuggets Game 7 had a 3.7 and 6.34 million viewers on ABC — up a tick in ratings and 10% in viewership from the previous semifinal Game 7 on ABC, Heat-Raptors in 2016 (3.6, 5.75M). Compared to the same window on ABC last year, Cavaliers-Celtics in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, ratings fell 14% (from 4.3) and viewership 12% (from 7.22M).
The Blazers’ win topped only Heat-Raptors as the least-watched second round Game 7 in 13 years — since Clippers-Suns on TNT in 2006 (5.82M).
Most-watched early round NBA playoff games since 2012
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 5.14]
