The Friday night “death slot” may be a thing of the past in the out-of-home era, at least if one judges by Game 4 of the NBA Finals.
Friday’s Warriors-Celtics NBA Finals Game 4 averaged a 6.2 rating and series-high 12.06 million viewers on ABC, up 17% in ratings and 15% in viewership from Suns-Bucks on a Wednesday in July last year (5.3, 10.46M) but down 18% and 6% respectively from Warriors-Raptors in the same Friday night window in 2019 (7.6, 12.79M). The 6% decline in viewership is the closest any Finals game has come to 2019 in the past three years.
The Warriors’ narrow win, which peaked with 15 million viewers, ranks as just the second NBA game to cross the 12 million viewer threshold since the league returned from hiatus nearly two years ago. Last year’s clinching Suns-Bucks Game 6 averaged 12.78 million.
In the out-of-home era, Friday nights may no longer be a ratings drag. This year marks the first time under the Finals’ current scheduling format (which began in 2016) that the Friday night Game 4 has outdrawn the previous three games. The Friday night game was the least-watched of the Finals in 2018 and 2019 and the second-least watched in 2016 and 2017. The key difference between this year and those years is that out-of-home viewing was not factored in.
The strength of Friday night in the out-of-home era is clear when looking at the household rating. Games 2, 3 and 4 each drew the same 6.2 rating, but the Friday night Game 4 averaged slightly more viewers than the Sunday night Game 2 (11.91M) and comfortably more than the Wednesday night Game 3 (11.52M).
In the only other Finals of the out-of-home era to include a Friday night game — Lakers-Heat in the “bubble” two years ago — that game (Game 5) was the most-watched of the series.
Even with the stronger performance, Friday’s game still topped only the past two years as the least-watched Game 4 of the Finals since 2007 (9.91M).
Finals viewership is now up 25% through four games to a three-year high, though that is not saying much given the extenuating circumstances of the past two years. Despite ratings hovering in the 6.0 range, ESPN/ABC says the series is averaging a 19 share — the highest for the Finals since 2018. As linear television viewing declines, events like the NBA Finals will account for a larger percentage of the shrinking viewership pie.
Game 4 had an 18 share, surpassing 2019 (17).
Despite a series-high in viewership, Game 4 hit series-lows in adults 18-34 (2.8) and 18-49 (3.6). It had a 4.2 rating in 25-54, the same as previous three games in that demo.
[Nielsen estimates from network PR, Programming Insider 6.13, ShowBuzz Daily 6.13]
