Not for the first time, the NFL Draft took some of the wind out of the NBA Playoffs’ sails.
Thursday’s Spurs-Grizzlies NBA Playoffs Game 6 earned a 2.0 final rating and 3.0 million viewers on TNT, down 20% in ratings and 22% in viewership from Clippers-Spurs in 2015 (2.5, 3.9M). There was no comparable game last year.
Not counting Game 5 on NBA TV, the Spurs’ series-clinching win was the least-watched game of the series.
With the NFL siphoning off much of the sports audience, the game tied for sixth in adults 18-49 Thursday night (1.1) — trailing ESPN’s draft coverage (2.8) and a smattering of ABC and CBS shows. It ranked fourth in adults 18-34, behind ESPN’s draft coverage (2.6), The Big Bang Theory on CBS (1.3) and ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy (1.2).
Earlier in the night, Raptors-Bucks Game 6 had a 1.2 and 1.9 million — down a tick in ratings and 3% in viewership from Hawks-Celtics last year (1.3, 1.9M) but flat and up 9% compared to Bulls 120, Bucks 66 in 2015 (1.2, 1.7M).
The Raptors’ clincher, which threatened to become a blowout before a late Milwaukee comeback, delivered the second-smallest audience of the playoffs (outside of NBA TV and ESPN2). Only Hawks-Wizards the previous night, which had an unusually early 6 PM ET start time, had a smaller audience (1.8M).
(Thu. numbers via Programming Insider 4/28)
