Both NBA conference finals opened at multi-year viewership highs, though the numbers look less impressive the further back one goes.
Wednesday’s Mavericks-Warriors NBA Western Conference Finals Game 1 averaged 6.52 million viewers on TNT, the largest audience for a conference final opener since Golden State’s previous appearance in the round on ESPN three years ago (Blazers-Warriors: 7.32M). Viewership jumped 38% from last year’s Clippers-Suns Game 1 on ABC (4.7M). Ratings were not immediately available.
The Warriors’ easy win, which peaked with 7.5 million viewers from 9:45-10 PM ET, posted the largest audience of the playoffs on cable and fourth-largest regardless of network. Golden State has played in four of the top eight games.
Nonetheless, Game 1 was the least-watched conference final opener involving the Warriors in the Stephen Curry era (six telecasts). The previous mark was 6.85 million for their opener against Houston in the first year of their run back in 2015. Keep in mind it was the most lopsided of those games.
The Warriors are not drawing as well as in their previous playoff run in ’19. Despite playing in almost identical television windows, only three of 12 Warriors playoff games this year have managed a larger audience than their equivalent game in ’19 — even with this year’s games having the advantage of out-of-home viewing. Golden State did face higher-profile first and second round opponents in ’19 (the Clippers and Rockets as opposed to the Nuggets and Grizzlies this year), but Luka Doncic’s Mavericks are far higher on the marquee than the Blazers of three years ago.
In the East, Tuesday’s Celtics-Heat Game 1 averaged a 3.4 rating and 6.07 million viewers — up 13% in ratings and viewership from Hawks-Bucks on TNT last year (3.0, 5.4M) and the most-watched Game 1 of an Eastern final since Cavaliers-Celtics on ABC in 2018, the previous ECF to air in the normal time of year and feature two American teams (7.22M).
As is usually the case, the NBA easily won the night on television in all of the key young demographics both Tuesday and Wednesday.
So far this postseason, viewership has not only outpaced the depressed levels of the previous two years but prior seasons as well. That was not the case for the first two games of the conference finals. Excluding the past two years, Celtics-Heat and Mavericks-Warriors rank as the fourth and seventh-least watched conference final openers since 2008 (24 games total).
[Nielsen estimates from Programming Insider 5.18, ShowBuzz Daily 5.18, 5.19, league and network PR]
