By STEVEN HERBERT
City News Service
Viewership for the first two games of ABC’s coverage of the NBA Finals was the lowest when held during their customary time since 2007, but 30% higher than last year, when they were held in July, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen Tuesday.
The two games between the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors averaged 11.656 million viewers. The first two games of the 2021 finals between the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns averaged 8.97 million viewers.
In the most recent previous time the finals were played in their customary June time frame, the first two games between the Warriors and Toronto Raptors in 2019 averaged 13.635 million viewers.
Golden State’s 107-88 victory in Game 2 Sunday was the most-watched prime-time program between May 30 and Sunday, averaging 11.911 million viewers. Boston’s 120-108 victory in Game 1 Thursday averaged 11.401 million to finish second.
Only three other programs in the first full week of television’s summer season averaged more than 4 million viewers.
An edition of the CBS news magazine “60 Minutes” with three previously broadcast segments that were updated averaged 6.748 million viewers. The 17th season premiere of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” averaged 6.328 million viewers. Sunday’s 17-minute NBA Finals postgame show averaged 6.265 million viewers.
The two NBA Finals games enabled ABC to be the week’s most-watched network, averaging 4.39 million viewers. Its most-watched non-basketball program was the news magazine “20/20,” 13th for the week averaging 3.436 million, the most among Friday’s programs.
CBS was second, averaging 3.06 million, and NBC third, averaging 2.53 million.
ABC, CBS and NBC all aired 22 hours of prime-time programming.
Fox averaged 1.51 million viewers for its 15 hours, 37 minutes of prime-time programming. Its most-watched program was “MasterChef,” 54th for the week averaging 2.252 million viewers.
The CW averaged 430,000 viewers for its 14 hours of programming. Its most-watched program was the crime drama “Walker,” which averaged 866,000 viewers, 118th among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.
The premiere of NBC’s dance challenge series “Dancing with Myself,” averaged 2.659 million viewers following “America’s Got Talent,” to finish 37th for the week. The week’s other premiere, The CW mystery “Tom Swift,” averaged 440,000 viewers, 195th among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.
The 20 most-watched prime-time programs consisted of two NBA Finals games, the postgame show for Game 2 of the finals and pregame show for Game 1; three other ABC programs, “20/20,” the concert honoring Queen Elizabeth II, “Party at the Palace” and the Thursday edition of “Jimmy Kimmel Live: Game Night”; 11 CBS programs — seven scripted series episodes, two game shows, “Let’s Make a Deal Primetime” and “The Price is Right at Night,” “60 Minutes” and the CBS News special, “Her Majesty The Queen: A Gayle King Special”; and two NBC entertainment programs, “America’s Got Talent” and a rerun of “Chicago Fire.”
Three editions of the Fox News Channel political talk show “Tucker Carlson Tonight” were the only prime-time cable programs to average more than 3 million viewers, topped by the Thursday edition, which averaged 3.056 million, 22nd overall.
The end of NBA playoff coverage on cable gave Fox News Channel its first weekly victory since the week of April 25-May 1, averaging 1.985 million viewers. ESPN was second, averaging 1.522 million. TNT was the only other cable network to average more than 1 million viewers for its prime-time programming, averaging 1.118 million viewers.
The cable top 20 consisted of 13 Fox News Channel political talk shows — five broadcasts of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” and four each of “Hannity” and “The Ingraham Angle”; three NHL Eastern Conference Finals games on ESPN; two NHL Western Conference Finals games on TNT; the TLC dating series “90 Day Fiance” and the Hallmark Channel movie, “Hidden Gems.”
The most-watched Spanish-language program was Univision’s coverage of Sunday’s exhibition men’s soccer game between Mexico and Ecuador which averaged 2.111 million viewers, 63rd overall.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 131st consecutive week and 133rd time in 134 weeks, averaging 1.26 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 890,000 viewers, followed by UniMas (510,000), Estrella TV (90,000) and Azteca America (30,000).
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched nightly newscast for the 130th time in 131 weeks and 182nd time in 184 weeks, averaging 7.187 million viewers. “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 6.053 million.
The “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell” was third, averaging 4.3 million.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were ABC’s coverage of Games 2 and 1 of the NBA Finals; CBS’ “60 Minutes”; NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”; ABC’s 17-minute Game 2 postgame show; CBS’ “FBI”; “The Price is Right at Night” and “Young Sheldon”; the 25-minute “NBA Countdown” pregame show prior to Game 1 of the NBA Finals; and CBS’ “The Equalizer.”