The NBA Eastern Conference Finals dominated a light night in sports television on Tuesday, May 21.
Tuesday’s Pacers-Celtics NBA Eastern Conference Finals Game 1 averaged 6.43 million viewers across ESPN (6.28M) and ESPN2 (151K) — 6.48 million including ESPN Deportes (47K) — marking the largest audience for Game 1 of the East Final in six years and easily the top sports audience of the day.
The Celtics’ win increased 8% over last year’s ECF opener on TNT. For more on viewership for the game, see this article.
No other sporting event Tuesday managed to hit even the 300,000 viewer mark. TBS placed a distant second with 248,000 for a Braves-Cubs Major League Baseball game, down from Dodgers-Braves last year (300K). MLB Network followed with 184,000 for a late night regional window that was joined in progress.
Not making the below chart, coverage of the NCAA women’s golf tournament match play quarterfinals averaged 73,000 on Golf Channel, followed by semifinal coverage at 33,000. In the Big Ten baseball tournament, Indiana-Purdue averaged 30,000 and Nebraska-Ohio State 25,000.
The FS1 talk show “Undisputed” averaged 50,000, marking the eighth time since its return from hiatus that the show has had 50,000 or fewer viewers. Of the 185 episodes over that span, more than half — 98 — have averaged fewer than 100,000.
Tuesday, May 21 sports ratings
Updated chart:
Original chart below:
