Sweeps are rarely good for ratings, but Warriors-Blazers still ended up as one of ESPN’s most-watched conference finals.
The four-game Warriors-Blazers NBA Western Conference Finals averaged approximately 7.6 million viewers on ESPN, down 20% from last year’s seven-game Warriors-Rockets series on TNT (9.4M), but up 16% from the four-game Warriors-Spurs series on ESPN in 2017 (6.5M). Versus the first four games of Warriors-Rockets, viewership declined 6% from 8.1 million.
Compared to last year’s conference final on ESPN, a seven-game Cavaliers-Celtics series, viewership declined 11% from 8.4 million.
Golden State’s sweep trails only last year as the most-watched conference final on ESPN/ABC since 2012 (Heat-Celtics: 10.1M). Overall, it ranks as the fourth-most watched conference final ever on the networks. The top three are Heat-Celtics, Lakers-Nuggets in 2009 (8.7M) and Cavaliers-Celtics.
It should be noted that several conference finals on TNT have averaged a larger audience, including seven in the past decade alone.
Monday’s Game 4 had 7.79 million viewers on ESPN, down 7% from Rockets-Warriors (8.37M) but up 34% from Warriors-Spurs (5.80M). Versus the same window on ESPN last year, viewership fell 2% from 7.94 million for Celtics-Cavaliers Game 4. Ratings were not available; nor were figures for an ESPN2 simulcast that failed to crack the night’s top 150 programs.
The Warriors’ overtime win ranks 12th out of the 33 conference final Game 4s under the current television format.
Saturday’s Game 3 had a 4.2 rating and 7.25 million, down 9% in ratings and 7% in viewership from Rockets-Warriors on a Sunday night (4.6, 7.80M), but up 14% in both measures from Warriors-Spurs (3.7, 6.33M). Compared to Celtics-Cavaliers, ratings increased 5% (from 4.0) and viewership 6% (from 6.83M).
Excluding elimination games, Game 3 ranks as the highest rated and most-watched conference final game on a Saturday — the lowest rated night of the week — since 2009 on ABC (Lakers-Nuggets: 5.4, 8.73M).
Game 3 had a 2.6 rating in adults 18-49 (-10%) and a 2.1 in adults 18-34 (-19%). Game 4 had a 2.8 in 18-49 (-10%) and 2.35 in 18-34 (-15%). On both nights, Warriors-Blazers was television’s top program in both demos.
