By David Bauder, Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --The shock-filled season finale of "Game of Thrones" on HBO reigned as television's most-watched drama during a week when many eyes were watching the gripping NBA Finals between the Warriors and Cavaliers.
The Nielsen company said 8.1 million people watched "Game of Thrones" on Sunday night, and it was likely to pick up significantly more viewers when the time-delayed audience is counted in. The episode of the blood-thirsty series featured the killing of a beloved character and an uncomfortable nude walk of another featured player.
"Game of Thrones" was also the subject of some 436,000 tweets, Nielsen said.
The basketball series continues to be a real winner for ABC, and is likely to finish as the most-watched NBA series in more than a decade. Game 5 on Sunday hit a peak of 20.9 million. ABC has one, possibly two, more games to go. The third game was the most tweeted-about, with 2.8 million individual tweets generated.
ABC won the week in prime time, averaging 9 million viewers. CBS averaged 5 million, NBC had 4.9 million, Fox had 3.4 million, Univision had 2.3 million, Telemundo had 1.3 million, ION Television had 1.1 million and the CW had 930,000.
USA was the week's most popular cable network, averaging 1.75 million viewers in prime time. HGTV had 1.65 million, the Disney Channel had 1.61 million, Fox News Channel had 1.45 million and the sister networks of TBS (1.422 million) and TNT (1.421 million) finished in a virtual tie.
NBC's "Nightly News" narrowly won the evening news competition with an average of 7.9 million. ABC's "World News Tonight" had 7.8 million and the "CBS Evening News" had 6.5 million.
For the week of June 8-15, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: NBA Finals: Cleveland vs. Golden State, Game 5, ABC, 20.86 million; NBA Finals: Golden State vs. Cleveland, Game 4, ABC, 19.84 million; NBA Finals: Golden State vs. Cleveland, Game 3, ABC, 18.77 million; "America's Got Talent" (Tuesday), NBC, 10.44 million; "Game of Thrones," HBO, 8.11 million; "60 Minutes," CBS, 7.7 million; "NCIS," CBS, 7.153 million; "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 7.145 million; "American Ninja Warrior," NBC, 7 million; "NCIS: New Orleans," CBS, 6.61 million.
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for June 8-14. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. NBA Finals: Cleveland vs. Golden State, Game 5, ABC, 20.86 million.
2. NBA Finals: Golden State vs. Cleveland, Game 4, ABC, 19.84 million.
3. NBA Finals: Golden State vs. Cleveland, Game 3, ABC, 18.77 million.
4. "America's Got Talent" (Tuesday), NBC, 10.44 million.
5. "Game of Thrones," HBO, 8.11 million.
6. "60 Minutes," CBS, 7.7 million.
7. "NCIS," CBS, 7.153 million.
8. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 7.145 million.
9. "American Ninja Warrior," NBC, 7 million.
10. "NCIS: New Orleans," CBS, 6.61 million.
11. "Dateline NBC" (Thursday), NBC, 6.46 million.
12. "The Bachelorette," ABC, 6.37 million.
13. "NBA Countdown" (Thursday), ABC, 6 million.
14. "Blue Bloods," CBS, 5.96 million.
15. "Criminal Minds," CBS, 5.79 million.
16. "48 Hours" (Tuesday), CBS, 5.57 million.
17. "I Can Do That," NBC, 5.52 million.
18. "The Odd Couple," CBS, 5.48 million.
19. "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 5.47 million.
20. "NBA Countdown" (Tuesday), ABC, 5.45 million.
SCHROM x Yacht Club and Be Electric Studios Launch Electric XR for Virtual Production
SCHROM x Yacht Club, a full-service live-action, tabletop, and postproduction company, has teamed with Be Electric Studios, a soundstage, equipment rental, and virtual production company, to launch Electric XR, a virtual production collective.
Industry veteran Thomas Rossano will lead the new venture, which provides advanced virtual production solutions across multiple facilities. He brings over 25 years of experience in live-action, tabletop, postproduction and talent curation to enhance Electric XR’s offerings as a resource for brands and agencies, as well as other production companies in need of virtual production solutions. Additionally Rossano continues to serve as EP at XR New York (XR-NY), a role he’s held since December 2022. SCHROM x Yacht Club originally established XR-NY to help provide XR services for third-party rentals. While XR-NY will continue to function independently for SCHROM X Yacht Club, it now operates under the Electric XR umbrella.
Rossano’s expertise spans producing live-action commercials, branded content, interactive and experiential content. In addition to leading Electric XR, he holds responsibilities at SCHROM x Yacht Club which include driving business development, collaborating with sales reps and expanding the company’s creative talent network. Rossano’s career includes serving as an exec producer at Hungry Man for about 11 years, right from that company’s inception. He then went on to become a partner at Station Film where he also had a lengthy tenure. Later he was a partner at PRISM. Then after the pandemic hit, he became a freelance EP for nearly two years, looking into opportunities in virtual production, which led him to XR NY and now Electric XR. Over the years, he has produced high-profile... Read More