From Sports Media Watch, a one-stop page for all sports ratings news.
Jon Lewis
This year’s NBA Finals Game 7 averaged a 31.9 rating in Oklahoma City and a 25.1 in Indianapolis, according to TVB. Tulsa ranked third at a 20.8, with Chicago and Cleveland as the top neutral markets with a 10.9. San Antonio (10.5), Milwaukee (10.2) and Minneapolis-St. Paul (10.1) rounded out the top eight.
Nationally, the June 22 contest had 7.6 rating and 16.6 million viewers on ABC.
Source: TVB
Jon Lewis
Sunday’s Pacers-Thunder NBA Finals Game 7 averaged a 7.6 rating and 16.61 million viewers across ABC and ESPN+, marking the highest rated and most-watched NBA game since Game 6 of the 2019 Finals (Raptors-Warriors: 10.7, 18.59M).
Game 6 last Thursday night averaged a 4.8 and 9.28 million — surpassing only Lakers-Heat in the 2020 “bubble” as the least-watched Game 6 of the Nielsen people-meter era (1988-present).
For more on the numbers and the full series, see this article.
Source: Programming Insider, Programming Insider, ESPN
Jon Lewis
Monday’s Pacers-Thunder NBA Finals Game 5 averaged a series-high 4.9 rating and 9.54 million viewers on ABC, down 22% in both measures from last year’s Mavericks-Celtics clincher (6.3, 12.22M).
Oklahoma City’s win was the lowest rated Finals Game 5 since Bucks-Suns on a Saturday night in July 2021 (4.8) and the least-watched Game 5 since Heat-Lakers on a Friday night in October 2020 (9.19M).
For more on the numbers, see this article.
Source: Programming Insider
Jon Lewis
Wednesday’s Thunder-Pacers NBA Finals Game 3 averaged a series-high 9.19 million viewers on ABC, down 20% from Celtics-Mavericks last year (11.43M) and the least-watched Game 3 of the Finals since the 2020 “bubble,” when Lakers-Heat averaged a record-low 6.08 million on an NFL Sunday in October.
For more, see this article.
Jon Lewis
Sunday’s Game 2 of the NBA Finals averaged a 25.3 rating in Oklahoma City, the highest NBA rating in the market since the Thunder’s Game 7 loss to the Warriors in the 2016 Western Conference Finals on TNT (30.0).
In Indianapolis, Game 2 averaged a 19.1 — the market’s highest for a Pacers game since Game 7 against the Cavaliers in the first round of the 2018 playoffs, which also aired on ABC (21.6).
Source: ESPN
Jon Lewis
Sunday’s Pacers-Thunder NBA Finals Game 2 averaged 8.76 million viewers on ABC, down 29% from Mavericks-Celtics last year (12.31M) and the least-watched Game 2 of the Finals since Heat-Lakers in the 2020 “bubble” on the night the president was hospitalized due to COVID (6.78M). Outside of that anomalous circumstance, it was the least-watched Game 2 since Cavaliers-Spurs opposite the series finale of “The Sopranos” in 2007 (8.55M).
Source: ESPN
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