Ratings roundup — Heat-Celtics Game 2 rebounded with a slight gain Friday night; Brittney Griner’s return hit a 24-year high on ESPN; viewership fell for both NHL conference final openers and the first two rounds of the PGA Championship.
Heat-C’s Game 2 sees slight viewer bump
Game 2 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals (Heat-Celtics) averaged 6.13 million viewers on TNT Friday night, up 1% from the same matchup on ESPN last year (6.05M). The slight gain was a reversal of Game 1, which declined 2% year-over-year (from 6.07M to 5.95M). Compared to TNT’s conference final last year, Mavericks-Warriors, viewership fell 9% (from 6.77M).
Miami’s win was the night’s most-watched primetime show and dominated the rest of television in the key adult demographics of 18-49 (2.05), 18-34 (1.8) and 25-54 (2.36). The only other show to crack even a 1.0 rating in any of those three demographics was TNT’s “Inside the NBA” postgame, at 1.1 in 25-54.
Griner’s return hits 24-year high
Friday’s Mercury-Sparks WNBA season opener, marking the return of Mercury C Brittney Griner after she missed all of last season detained in Russia, averaged 683,000 viewers on ESPN — the league’s largest regular season audience on cable since June 1999 (Mystics-Liberty: 722K). ESPN’s coverage did not begin until after 11:30 PM ET due to a long-running NHL lead-in.
Including playoffs, it was the most-watched WNBA game on cable since Game 2 of the 2021 finals (Sky-Mercury: 789K).
The portion of the game that aired on ESPN2 due to NHL coverage (18 minutes total) averaged 144,000.
NHL conference final openers down
The opening games of the NHL conference finals — Panthers-Hurricanes on TNT Thursday and Stars-Golden Knights on ESPN Friday — averaged 1.43 and 1.71 million viewers respectively, down 39% and 6% from last year’s equivalent games (Lightning-Rangers: 2.36M; Oilers-Avalanche: 1.82M).
Florida’s four-overtime win, which did not end until shortly before 2 AM ET, trailed all of last year’s conference final games — none of which averaged fewer than 1.47 million (Oilers-Avalanche Game 2).
Sans Tiger, early rounds of PGA down sharply
ESPN coverage of the PGA Championship averaged 1.07 million viewers last Thursday and 1.37 million on Friday, down 27% and 36% respectively from last year, when Tiger Woods was in the field (1.47 and 2.13M). Compared to two years ago, when Woods did not play, Thursday viewership fell 10% but Friday’s audience was about even.
(Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 5.22, PR)
