The opening three games of the NBA Western Conference finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets swept the top three spots in the latest weekly prime-time ratings, with Saturday’s game drawing the largest audience for a Game 3 of an NBA conference final since 2011, according to live-plus-same-day figures released Tuesday by Nielsen.
ABC’s coverage of Denver’s 119-108 victory averaged 8.384 million viewers. ESPN carried the first two games of the series, with the Nuggets’ 108-103 Game 2 victory Thursday averaging 7.656 million viewers and their 132-126 Game 1 victory last Tuesday averaging 7.129 million.
The CBS news magazine “60 Minutes” was the only other prime-time program between May 15 and Sunday to average more than 7 million viewers, averaging 7.04 million viewers to finish fourth for the week.
The two-part sixth-season finale of the CBS comedy “Young Sheldon” accounted for the week’s two most-watched entertainment programs. The second part averaged 6.973 million viewers, fifth for the week and second among non-sports program, while the first part averaged 6.886 million viewers, sixth for the week and third among non-sports programs.
CBS also had the week’s most-watched drama, “NCIS,” seventh for the week and fourth among non-sports programs, averaging 6.656 million viewers.
CBS had six of the week’s seven most-watched non-sports programs to be the most-watched network for the 10th consecutive week, the 13th time in 14 weeks and 15th time in the last 17, averaging 4.6 million viewers.
The only times CBS has not finished first in the past 17 weeks were the weeks of Feb. 6-13, when Fox aired Super Bowl LVII, and March 6-12, when ABC aired the Oscars.
ABC was second for the sixth consecutive week following four consecutive third-place finishes, averaging 4.29 million viewers. Its most-watched non-sports program was “American Idol,” eighth for the week and fifth among non-sports programs, averaging 6.616 million viewers.
NBC was third among the broadcast networks for the sixth consecutive week after four consecutive second-place finishes, averaging 3.03 million viewers. “Chicago Fire” was its most-watched program for the third consecutive week, averaging 6.021 million viewers, 12th overall and eighth among non-sports programs.
CBS, ABC and NBC all aired 22 hours of prime-time programming.
Fox averaged 1.98 million viewers for its 15 hours, 14 minutes of prime-time programming. The procedural drama “9-1-1” was its most-watched program, averaging 4.323 million viewers, 34th for the week and 27th among non-sports programming.
Each of the nine original episodes of “9-1-1” to air in 2023 have been Fox’s most-watched prime-time program of the week.
The CW averaged 290,000 viewers for its 14 hours of programming. Its most-watched program was a rerun of the magic competition series “Penn & Teller: Fool Us,” which averaged 533,000 viewers, 161st among broadcast programs. Its overall ranking was not available.
The 20 most-watched prime-time programs consisted of six NBA playoff games — three on TNT, two on ESPN and one on ABC; six CBS scripted programs and its news magazine “60 Minutes”; three episodes of “Jeopardy! Masters” and “American Idol” on ABC; and two NBC scripted series and its singing competition “The Voice.”
NBA playoff coverage made TNT the most-watched cable network for the fifth consecutive week, averaging 2.867 million viewers. ESPN was second for the fourth consecutive week, averaging 2.524 million.
Fox News Channel was first in prime time among cable news networks for the 118th consecutive week and third among cable networks for the fourth consecutive week, averaging 1.399 million viewers, 1.8% less than its 1.425-million average the previous week.
MSNBC was fourth among cable networks for the fifth consecutive week following third- and second-place finishes, averaging 1.092 million viewers, 3.1% less than its 1.127-million average the previous week.
CNN drew its smallest prime-time audience since May 2014, averaging 371,000 viewers, 46.1% less than the 689,000 viewers it averaged a week earlier when it aired a town hall with former President Donald Trump. CNN was again third among cable news networks and 16th among cable networks, 10 spots lower than the previous week.
The cable prime-time top 20 consisted of five NBA playoff games — three on TNT and two on ESPN; two “Inside the NBA Playoffs” studio shows on TNT; the NBA draft lottery and two “NBA Courtside” studio shows on ESPN; ESPN’s coverage of Game 7 of the second-round NHL playoff series between the Dallas Stars and Seattle Kraken; History’s long-running chronicle of a search for treasure on a Canadian island, “The Curse of Oak Island”; two MSNBC political talk shows — “The Rachel Maddow Show” and the May 15 edition of “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” which followed it; Fox Sports 1’s coverage of the NASCAR All-Star Race; three editions of the Fox News Channel political talk show “Hannity”; Bravo’s look at the lives of restaurateur Lisa Vanderpump and her current and former staff at West Hollywood’s SUR, “Vanderpump Rules”; and the second of three hourlong segments of the USA Network professional wrestling show, “WWE Raw.”
Netflix’s most-watched movie for the second consecutive week was the Jennifer Lopez-starring action thriller “The Mother” with 94.42 million viewing hours in the first full week it was available, 12.8% more than the 83.71 million hours the previous week when it was available three days, according to figures from the streaming service.
The “Bridgerton” prequel “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story” was Netflix’s most-watched television program for the third consecutive week with 82.39 million hours watched of its six episodes in their second full week of release, 48.1% less than the 158.68 million hours the previous week.
The most-watched Spanish-language program was Sunday’s Liga MX game between Chivas and America which averaged 2.184 million viewers, 62nd for the week.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 41st consecutive week and 179th time in 181 weeks, averaging 1.07 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 830,000 viewers, followed by UniMas (360,000) and Estrella TV (90,000).
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched nightly newscast for the 233rd time in 234 weeks, averaging 7.396 million viewers. “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 5.843 million viewers. The “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell” was third, averaging 4.282 million viewers.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were ABC’s coverage of Game 2 of the Lakers-Nuggets series, ESPN’s coverage of Games 2 and 1, CBS’ “60 Minutes,” the 8:31 p.m. and 8 p.m. episodes of `Young Sheldon,” “NCIS,” ABC’s “American Idol,” CBS’ “FBI” and TNT’s coverage of Game 3 of the NBA Eastern Conference finals between the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat.