Sunday’s Bulls/Heat Game 3 earned the second-largest audience ever for an NBA game on cable, trailing only Game 1 of the same series one week earlier.
TNT earned a 6.4 U.S. rating and 10.889 million viewers for Game 3 between the Bulls and Heat on Sunday night, up 28% in ratings and 29% in viewership from last year (LAL/PHX G3: 5.0, 8.460M), and up 19% and 21%, respectively, from 2009 (CLE/ORL G3: 5.4, 8.969M).
Game 3 ranks as the second-most viewed NBA game ever on cable television, behind only Game 1 a week earlier (11.109M). Overall, the first three games of the Heat/Bulls series rank among the five most-viewed NBA games ever on cable.
Prior to this year, the most-viewed NBA game ever on cable was the 2003 NBA All-Star Game (10.829M), and the most-viewed NBA playoff game on cable was Cavaliers/Magic Game 4 in 2009 (10.075M).
Including Games 4 and 5 of the 2009 Magic/Cavaliers Eastern Conference Finals, the five-most viewed NBA playoff games in cable history have involved LeBron James. The same five games are also the most-viewed NBA playoff games on broadcast or cable since the current television deal began in the 2002-03 season (excludes the NBA Finals).
Through Game 3, Heat/Bulls is averaging a 6.2 U.S. rating and 10.667 million viewers on TNT, up 35% and 42%, respectively, from Lakers/Suns last year.
The series ranks as the highest rated conference final through three games since at least 1999, and the most-viewed since at least 2001. (Complete ratings for the Conference Finals were only available dating back to the 1999-2000 season, with viewership dating back to the 2001-02 season.)
For some perspective, this year’s Heat/Bulls series is outpacing the three-game average for Lakers/Kings in 2002 by 23% in households (7.2M to 5.9M) and 29% in viewership (10.7M to 8.3M). That Lakers/Kings series, which aired primarily on NBC, still ranks as the most-viewed NBA conference final of the past ten seasons.
This year’s series is also putting up numbers comparable to the last time the Bulls and Heat met in the Conference Finals — a 1997 series that featured Michael Jordan. The 6.4 U.S. rating for this year’s Game 3 is only 6% lower than Bulls/Heat Game 3 in 1997 (6.8), which aired on NBC.
(This year’s numbers from Turner Sports)
