An all-time rout by the Minnesota Timberwolves led the sports viewership charts for Thursday, May 16.
Tuesday’s Nuggets-Timberwolves second round NBA playoff Game 6 — won by Minnesota in a 45-point wipeout — averaged 5.15 million viewers on ESPN, down 17% from Celtics-Sixers in a similar window last year (6.20M). (Compared to Nuggets-Suns on the same night last year, which aired in a later window, viewership increased 14% from 4.53 million.
NBA playoff games were averaging 3.60 million viewers through Thursday, down 12% from last year’s average of 4.10 million at the same point of the postseason.
Minnesota’s blowout win was the most-watched sportscast of the day. Placing second, the Rangers’ series-clinching Game 6 win over the Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup Playoffs averaged 1.91 million across TNT (1.74M) and truTV (179K) — up 36% from Devils-Hurricanes a year ago (1.41M). The all-Canadian Oilers-Canucks series followed with 861,000 (TNT: 772K; truTV: 89K), down 39% from last year’s equivalent Kraken-Stars game (1.42M).
Stanley Cup playoff games were averaging 1.13 million viewers through Thursday, up 11% from the same number of days in last year’s postseason (1.02M).
Shifting to the PGA Championship, opening round coverage on ESPN averaged 1.12 million — up 5% from last year (1.07M). A betting-themed alternate presentation on ESPN2 led in with 164,000.
In the NCAA women’s lacrosse quarterfinals, Michigan-Boston College topped the day with just 21,000 on ESPNU.
Thursday, May 16 sports ratings
Updated chart:
Original chart below:
