The NBA Finals drew record-low viewership facing unprecedented sports competition because of its shift to the fall caused by the coronavirus pandemic and one-sided games, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen Tuesday.
ABC’s coverage of the Los Angeles Lakers six-game victory over the Miami Heat averaged 7.487 million viewers. The previous low was the 9.29 million average for the San Antonio Spurs four-game sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2007 finals.
Each of the first four games averaged fewer viewers than any finals game on record before this year. Records are available dating back to 1988.
The closest game of the series was also the most-watched. The Lakers 111-108 loss in Game 5 Friday averaged 8.89 million viewers, 10th among prime-time broadcast and cable programs airing between Oct. 5 and Sunday.
The Lakers’ series-clinching 106-93 victory in Game 6 Sunday mostly opposite NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” averaged 8.291 million viewers, 13th for the week.
The 28-point lead at halftime was the second-largest of an NBA Finals game, behind only the Lakers 30-point deficit to the Celtics in Game 1 of the 1985 Finals, known as the Memorial Day Massacre.
The Lakers held a 32-point lead in the third quarter of Game 1 Sept. 30 that averaged a record-low 7.576 million viewers. The record was erased two days later by the 6.909-million average for Game 2, and by Game 3 two days after that, which averaged 5.935 million.
All but the two Sunday games were the most-watched programs of their nights.
The record-low viewership for the NBA Finals follows NBC drawing record-low viewership for the Indianapolis 500 in August and Kentucky Derby and final round of golf’s U.S. Open in September.
Official viewership for nearly all forms of programming has decreased because of increased viewing of streaming programming, including the same program shown on traditional television.
The 2020 figures include out-of-home viewing while those for past years do not.
The NBA Finals have annually aired on ABC since 2003. They aired on NBC from 1991-2002 and CBS from 1974-90.
Fox’s “Thursday Night Football” handed “Sunday Night Football” a rare loss in the race to be the week’s most-watched program.
The Chicago Bears 20-19 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Fox averaged 15.117 while the Seattle Seahawks 27-26 victory over the Minnesota Vikings on NBC averaged 15.08 million.
CBS’ first Monday night NFL telecast since 1969 was a close third, with the Kansas City Chiefs 26-10 victory over the New England Patriots averaging 14.703 million viewers.
Fox’s “The Masked Singer” was the most-watched prime-time entertainment program for the second consecutive week, averaging 6.014 million viewers, 25th overall, one spot ahead of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars,” which averaged 5.892 million.
CBS’ Monday night football game, its Sunday NFL runover and “60 Minutes” helped it edge ABC, 5.77 million-5.73 million to be the most-watched network. NBC was third, averaging 4.86 million, and Fox News Channel averaged 4.415 million. All four networks aired 22 hours of prime-time programming.
Fox averaged 4.27 million viewers for its 16 hours, 39 minutes of prime-time programming.
CBS averaged 26.081 million viewers for its 49-minute runover of its afternoon NFL coverage into prime time in the Eastern and Central time zones. The runover is not considered a separate program, but is included in the weekly average.
The CBS News magazine “60 Minutes” was week’s most-watched non-NFL program, averaging 12.041 million viewers.
Fox News Channel was the most-watched cable network for the 37th time in 38 weeks, averaging 4.415 million viewers. MSNBC was second, averaging 2.75 million, and CNN third, averaging 2.59 million.
More people watched the vice presidential debate on Fox News Channel than any other cable or broadcast source, 11.943 million viewers. Overall the debate between Vice President Mike Pence and California Sen. Kamala Harris last Wednesday averaged 57.9 million viewers on 18 broadcast and cable networks, the second-most for a vice presidential debate, trailing only the 2008 debate between then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and then-Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, which averaged 69.9 million viewers.
Netflix’s “Cobra Kai” was the most-streamed program for the second consecutive week according to Nielsen’s latest streaming report, with viewers watching 1.655 million minutes of the 20 episodes of the sequel to the 1984 film “The Karate Kid” between Sept. 7-13.
Netflix’s science fiction drama “Away” was second, with viewers watching 1.366 million minutes.
The report covers programming on Amazon Prime, Disney+, Hulu and Netflix.
The most-watched Spanish-language program was the Monday episode of the Univision telenovela, “Imperio de mentiras,” which averaged 1.499 million viewers, 67th among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 45th consecutive week and 47th time in 48 weeks, averaging 1.14 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 1.06 million, followed by UniMas (410,000), Estrella TV (110,000) and Azteca America (60,000).
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched network nightly newscast for the 45th consecutive week, the 96th time in 97 weeks and the 148th time in 150 weeks, averaging 8.159 million viewers. The “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 7.342 million viewers followed by the “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell” which averaged 5.268 million.
The averages for the NBC and CBS newscasts did not include Monday.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were Fox’s “Thursday Night Football”; NBC’s “Sunday Night Football”; CBS’ Monday night football game between the Kansas City Chiefs and New England Patriots; CBS’ “60 Minutes”; the vice presidential debate on Fox News Channel and ABC; the nine-minute “Sunday Night Football” pre-kickoff show; Fox News Channel’s 26-minute vice presidential debate analysis program; ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” game between the Atlanta Falcons and Green Bay Packers; and ABC’s coverage of Game 5 of the NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat.