Despite hitting a six-year viewership low, the NBA Western Conference Finals finished with a playoff-high on TNT.
Game 6 of the Spurs/Thunder NBA Western Conference Finals earned a 4.9 U.S. rating and 8.2 million viewers on TNT Saturday night, flat in ratings and down 1% in viewership from Heat/Pacers last year (4.9, 8.2M) and down 18% and 15%, respectively, from Spurs/Thunder in 2012 (6.0, 9.5M).
Spurs/Thunder Game 6 ranks as the most-viewed game of the playoffs on any network, even topping every game of the Heat/Pacers Eastern Conference Finals on ESPN. It was the only playoff game prior to the NBA Finals to top eight million viewers, the smallest total since 2008.
Overall, the six-game Spurs/Thunder series averaged a 4.2 U.S. rating and 6.8 million viewers — down 19% in ratings and viewership from last year’s seven-game Heat/Pacers series (5.2, 8.4M) and down 16% and 13%, respectively, from the six-game Thunder/Spurs series in 2012 (5.0, 7.8M). Last year’s four-game Spurs/Grizzlies series on ESPN/TNT averaged a much lower 3.1 and 4.9 million viewers.
This year’s Spurs/Thunder series ranks as the least-viewed conference final on TNT since Lakers/Spurs in 2008 (6.3M), and the second-least viewed on any network over that same span. Not helping matters was the lopsided nature of most of the games.
(Game 6 numbers/series avg. from Turner Sports)
