Kevin Durant’s Game 5 heroics delivered the NBA’s top audience of the second round thus far. Plus: figures for the NHL’s third round, the “Euro 2020” soccer tournament, the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials and more.
Durant heroics hit second round high
Tuesday’s Bucks-Nets NBA second round Game 5 averaged 4.58 million viewers on TNT, marking the largest audience of the semifinals thus far. Viewership actually declined 1% from Lakers-Rockets Game 3 in the “bubble” last September (4.65M) but increased 22% from 2019 (Sixers-Raptors Game 5: 3.75M).
Brooklyn’s dramatic, comeback win ranks third for the playoffs overall, behind a pair of opening round games on ABC — Game 7 of Mavericks-Clippers (5.49M) and Game 4 of Suns-Lakers (5.38M). Including the Play-in Tournament, it ranks fourth behind the aforementioned games and Warriors-Lakers on May 19 (5.62M).
On Wednesday night, the Hawks’ Game 5 comeback over the Sixers averaged 3.88 million — up 13% from the “bubble” (Raptors-Celtics Game 6: 3.43M) but down 20% from 2019 (Celtics-Bucks Game 5: 4.87M).
The Clippers-Jazz nightcap drew 3.89 million, up 31% from the “bubble” (Clippers-Nuggets Game 4: 2.98M) but down 43% from Rockets-Warriors in ’19 (6.86M).
Early results decent enough for NHL third round
Wednesday’s Canadiens-Golden Knights NHL semifinal Game 2 averaged 1.03 million viewers on NBCSN, up 16% from last year’s comparable Stars-Golden Knights Game 2 in the “bubble” (887K) but down 26% from Blues-Sharks in 2019 (1.39M).
Game 1 of the series pulled just 964,000 on Monday, down 41% from Stars-Golden Knights in the “bubble” (1.64M) and down 54% from Blues-Sharks in ’19 (2.09M), with the caveat that both of those games aired on the NBC broadcast network.
Shifting to the other semifinal, Tuesday’s Islanders-Lightning Game 2 pulled 1.32 million — up 16% from game two of the same matchup last year (1.14M) but down 42% from Hurricanes-Bruins in ’19, which aired on NBC (2.26M).
Figures for Sunday’s Game 1 on NBC were not available.
“Euro 2020” up 20 percent so far
The first 12 matches of the “Euro 2020” soccer tournament averaged 934,000 viewers across ESPN and ABC, up 20% from the comparable period of Euro 2016 five years ago (780K).
Tuesday’s France-Germany match averaged 1.5 million viewers on ESPN, the largest audience for a group stage match since 2012 (Spain-Italy: 2.11M). Last Saturday’s Belgium-Russia match ranks second for the tournament with 1.4 million on ABC, followed by Netherlands-Ukraine on ESPN the following day (1.1M).
Philadelphia, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale and Raleigh-Durham are tied as the top markets thus far, each averaging a 1.0 rating.
Plus: Olympic Trials, PGA Tour, UFC/Top Rank
Sans the retired Michael Phelps, and facing unusual competition from the NBA and NHL playoffs, NBC’s primetime coverage of the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials is down sharply from 2016. Sunday’s first night sank 51% (from 4.47M to 2.20M), followed by declines of 42% on Monday (from 5.17M to 2.99M), 49% on Tuesday (5.89M to 3.03M) and 50% on Wednesday (5.77M to 2.88M). … Final round coverage of the PGA Tour Palmetto Championship, a one-time replacement for the canceled Canadian Open, averaged 2.23 million viewers on CBS last Sunday. That ranks 16th out of the 20 final round windows on broadcast this year. … UFC 263 prelims averaged 1.09 million viewers on ESPN last Saturday, marking the largest audience for PPV prelims since UFC 259 in January (1.21M). That does not include the “early prelims” that averaged 752,000. The Top Rank Boxing lead-out averaged 784,000.
[Nielsen estimates from John Ourand/Twitter 6.15, 6.16, 6.17, Spoiler TV 6.15 a, b, ESPN PR, CBS]
