Game 2 of the Thunder/Mavericks Western Conference Finals drew slightly more viewers than last year’s comparable Suns/Lakers game.
ESPN earned a 4.4 U.S. rating and 7.041 million viewers for Thursday’s Thunder/Mavericks Game 2, flat in ratings and up 1% in viewership compared to Game 2 of last year’s Suns/Lakers Western Conference Finals game on TNT (PHX/LAL G2: 4.4, 7.004M).
Compared to previous Conference Finals on ESPN, Thursday’s game was down 4% in ratings and 2% in viewership from last year (BOS/ORL G2: 4.6, 7.156M), and down 10% and 11%, respectively, from 2009 (DEN/LAL G2: 4.9, 7886M).
Keep in mind last year’s Celtics/Magic Game 2 aired on a Tuesday night.
Through two games, the Thunder/Mavericks series is down just 1% in viewership from last year’s Suns/Lakers matchup on TNT.
The 4.4 rating is the second-highest for a Western Conference Finals game since 2000 that did not involve the Lakers (24 telecasts), trailing only Suns/Spurs Game 4 in 2005 (4.7). The previous #2 ranked game was Tuesday’s Game 1 of the series.
Game 2 drew a 23.0 rating in Oklahoma City, down 8% from Game 1 (25.1), but the fourth-highest rating ever for a Thunder telecast in the market. In Dallas, the game drew a 17.8, down 5% from Game 1 (18.8).
(Numbers from TV By the Numbers, The Oklahoman)
