The official viewership for the opening two games of the NBA Finals was 6.7 percent less than a year ago, but basketball dominated the prime-time ratings for the first full week of television’s summer season, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen Tuesday.
The opening two games of the unprecedented fourth consecutive finals matchup between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors averaged 17.913 million viewers.
The average was the lowest of the four series between the teams, but higher than all other series since 2002.
Viewership for the first two games of the 2017 finals were the largest since the 1998 series between the Chicago Bulls and Utah Jazz, Michael Jordan’s last finals appearance, which aired on NBC.
Official viewership figures for nearly all forms of programming are down on a year-to-year basis, in part because more people are watching the same programming on a streamed basis, which are not included in the official figures.
Golden State’s 122-103 victory in Game 2 Sunday was the most-watched prime-time program between May 28 and Sunday, averaging 18.471 million viewers, 6.2 percent less than the 19.686-million average for Game 2 of the 2017 finals, a 132-113 victory by the Warriors.
Viewership was the third-largest for an NBA Finals Game 2 since 2002, trailing the 2017 and 2015 finals.
Golden State’s 124-114 overtime victory in Game 1 Thursday was second for the week, averaging 17.354 million viewers, 7.7 percent less than the 18.698-million average for Game 1 of the 2017 finals, a 113-91 victory by the Warriors.
Basketball programming accounted for four of the week’s five most-watched programs. TNT’s coverage of Golden State’s 101-92 victory over the Houston Rockets in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals May 28 was third for the week, averaging 14.929 million viewers, the second most-watched NBA game in the history of cable television.
ABC’s 18-minute NBA Finals postgame show Sunday was fifth, averaging 7.639 million viewers.
The most-watched NBA game on cable television was TNT’s coverage of Game 7 of the 2016 Western Conference finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Warriors, which averaged 16 million viewers.
The week’s only other prime-time program to average more than 8 million viewers was the 13th season premiere of NBC’s perennial summer ratings powerhouse, “America’s Got Talent,” fourth for the week, averaging 12.16 million viewers, 1.3 percent than the 12.32-million average for the 2017 season premiere.
The NBA Finals gave ABC its first prime-time weekly ratings victory since the Oscars and second since the conclusion of the 2017 finals, averaging 6.16 million viewers, its most since the Oscars.
NBC was second, averaging 4.87 million viewers. CBS was third after winning each of the previous 12 weeks, averaging 4.63 million viewers. Its most-watched program was “60 Minutes,” sixth for the week, averaging 7.639 million viewers.
Fox finished fourth among the major broadcast networks for the 19th consecutive week, averaging 2.01 million viewers for its 16 hours, eight minutes of prime-time programming. Its most-watched program was the season premiere of the cooking competition “MasterChef,” which finished 26th overall, averaging 5.3 million viewers.
Fox also trailed cable’s TNT, which averaged 2.234 million viewers to be the most-watched cable network for the sixth time in seven weeks.
ABC, NBC, CBS and TNT each broadcast 22 hours of programming for ratings purposes.
The week’s only premiere on the four major broadcast networks, the NBC science fiction drama “Reverie,” was third in its Wednesday 10-11 p.m. time slot and 54th for the week, averaging 2.883 million viewers.
The most-watched Spanish-language prime-time program was the Thursday episode of the Univision telenovela “O Rico e Lazaro,” which averaged 1.892 million viewers to finish 98th overall.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 30th consecutive week, averaging 1.45 million viewers. Telemundo averaged 970,000 viewers to finish second for the 30th consecutive week after four consecutive first-place finishes. UniMas was third, averaging 670,000 viewers, followed by Estrella TV, which averaged 240,000, and Azteca America, which averaged 70,000.
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched network nightly newscast for the 27th consecutive week and 38th of past 39, averaging 8.028 million viewers.
The “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 7.606 million viewers.
The “CBS Evening News” averaged 5.675 million viewers. It has finished third each week since the week of Sept. 25-29, 2006.
The weekly averages for all three network newscasts did not include Memorial Day.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were ABC’s coverage of Games 2 and 1 of the NBA Finals; TNT’s coverage of Game 7 of the NBA’s Western Conference finals; NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”; CBS’ “60 Minutes”; NBC’s “World of Dance”; and CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory,” “Young Sheldon” and “Code Black.”