Two weeks after the most-watched first round Game 1 in 20 years, the NBA delivered its most-watched semifinal Game 1 in 11.
Sunday’s Warriors-Grizzlies second round NBA playoff Game 1 averaged a 4.1 rating and 7.71 million viewers on ABC, marking the largest audience for a semifinal opener since Celtics-Heat in 2011 (9.17M) and the highest rated and most-watched NBA telecast outside of the Finals since Clippers-Lakers on Christmas Day 2019 (4.6, 8.76M).
Golden State’s narrow win delivered the largest NBA playoff audience outside of the Finals since Game 4 of the 2019 Warriors-Blazers Western Conference Finals (7.79M) and ABC’s largest playoff audience outside of the Finals since Game 1 of the 2017 Warriors-Spurs Western Conference Finals (8.13M).
Ratings and viewership jumped by more than a third from last year’s equivalent window (Mavericks-Clippers Game 7: 3.0, 5.49M*). Compared to Warriors-Rockets Game 1 in 2019, Golden State’s previous second round opener, ratings slipped 9% (from 4.5) but viewership increased 6% (from 7.26M). Keep in mind out-of-home viewing was not included in Nielsen viewership estimates in 2019.
As one would expect, Sunday’s game generated the largest television audience to ever watch the Memphis Grizzlies. The previous high was 7.14 million for Grizzlies-Thunder Game 7 in the aforementioned 2011 playoffs.
Earlier Sunday, Bucks-Celtics averaged a 3.0 and 5.37 million — up more than 50% from Hawks-Sixers last year (2.0, 3.39M*) and up 8% and 28% respectively from the same matchup in the same window in 2019 (2.8, 4.20M).
Excluding Christmas, Sunday marked the first time since 2018 that both games of an ABC doubleheader averaged at least a 3.0 rating (4/29/18: Pacers-Cavaliers Game 7: 4.2; Jazz-Rockets Game 1: 3.6).
For the day, Warriors-Grizzlies and Bucks-Celtics were television’s highest rated programs in adults 18-49 (2.2 and 1.5), 18-34 (1.6 and 1.3) and 25-54 (2.55 and 1.8). An NBA game has won the night on television in 18-49 and 18-34 on 14 of 17 nights this postseason and in 25-54 on 13 of 17 nights. In a rarity, Warriors-Grizzlies was also Sunday’s most-watched television program overall, surpassing “60 Minutes” on CBS (7.53M).
Shifting to Monday’s semifinal openers, Mavericks-Suns averaged 3.94 million viewers on TNT — a modest increase over last year (Nuggets-Suns Game 1: 3.69M*) and 2019 (Blazers-Nuggets Game 1: 3.64M). The Sixers-Heat lead-in averaged 3.82 million, up double-digits from last year (Bucks-Nets Game 2: 3.14M*) and about even with ’19 (Sixers-Raptors Game 2: 3.83M).
Asterisk (*) indicates figure is subject to revision due to Nielsen undercount.
