By David Bauder, Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --The showdown between Stephen Curry and LeBron James proved to be the most popular NBA Finals on television since Michael Jordon was winning his sixth championship back in 1998.
The Nielsen company said the six-game series won by the Warriors averaged just under 19.9 million viewers. It didn’t come close to the average of 29 million people who watched Jordan’s last stand but, then again, nothing has. The Warriors’ clinching game last week had more than 23 million viewers.
Never underestimate the appeal of games on TV during the warm-weather months: ABC’s premiere of “Celebrity Family Feud” was the third most popular program of the week. A couple of other summer shows on ABC, “The Astronaut Wives Club” and “Battlebots,” also had strong premieres.
The Lifetime movie, “A Deadly Adoption,” had 2.1 million viewers in its first airing Saturday night, with a total of 6 million people watching at least one of the six showings on the network. The movie, starring Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig, was one of the odder TV stories of the year. The stars made it quietly, lied and said the project was being cancelled when it was revealed, then Lifetime aired it over the weekend with virtually no publicity.
Three other Lifetime movies did better so far this year among the women’s demographic that the network aims at; there’s no telling how “A Deadly Adoption” would have done with more attention ahead of time.
The second season of HBO’s “True Detective” premiered to just under 3.2 million viewers on Sunday night, Nielsen said.
ABC won the week in prime time with an average of 6 million viewers. Fox had 4.92 million, boosted by the ending of the U.S. Open golf tournament that stretched into prime time on Sunday. CBS had 4.9 million, NBC had 4.5 million, Univision had 2.1 million, Telemundo and the ION Network both had 1.13 million and the CW had 880,000.
The Disney Channel was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 1.79 million viewers. TNT had 1.76 million, HGTV had 1.53 million, Fox News Channel had 1.5 million and USA had 1.49 million.
ABC’s “World News Tonight” won the evening news ratings race with an average of 7.9 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 7.5 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.9 million.
For the week of June 15-21, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: NBA Finals: Golden State vs. Cleveland, Game 6, ABC, 23.25 million; “America’s Got Talent,” NBC, 10.18 million; “Celebrity Family Feud,” ABC, 8.66 million; NHL Stanley Cup Finals: Tampa Bay vs. Chicago, Game 6, NBC, 8.01 million; “NCIS,” CBS, 7.45 million; “20/20,” ABC, 7.26 million; “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 7.21 million; “NBA Countdown,” ABC, 6.57 million; “Dateline NBC” (Thursday), NBC, 6.31 million; “The Bachelorette,” ABC, 6.29 million.
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for June 15-21. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.
1. NBA Finals: Golden State vs. Cleveland, Game 6, ABC, 23.25 million.
2. “America’s Got Talent,” NBC, 10.18 million.
3. “Celebrity Family Feud,” ABC, 8.66 million.
4. NHL Stanley Cup Finals: Tampa Bay vs. Chicago, Game 6, NBC, 8.01 million.
5. “NCIS,” CBS, 7.45 million.
6. “20/20,” ABC, 7.26 million.
7. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 7.21 million.
8. “NBA Countdown,” ABC, 6.57 million.
9. “Dateline NBC” (Thursday), NBC, 6.31 million.
10. “The Bachelorette,” ABC, 6.29 million.
11. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 6.09 million.
12. “NCIS: New Orleans,” CBS, 6.04 million.
13. “Criminal Minds,” CBS, 6 million.
14. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 5.9 million.
15. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 5.68 million.
16. “Mike & Molly” (Thursday), CBS, 5.52 million.
17. “The Astronaut Wives Club,” ABC, 5.51 million.
18. “Mom,” CBS, 5.48 million.
19. “Battlebots,” ABC, 5.44 million.
20. “NHL Stanley Cup Pregame,” NBC, 5.4 million.
After 20 Years of Acting, Megan Park Finds Her Groove In The Director’s Chair On “My Old Ass”
Megan Park feels a little bad that her movie is making so many people cry. It's not just a single tear either — more like full body sobs.
She didn't set out to make a tearjerker with "My Old Ass," now streaming on Prime Video. She just wanted to tell a story about a young woman in conversation with her older self. The film is quite funny (the dialogue between 18-year-old and almost 40-year-old Elliott happens because of a mushroom trip that includes a Justin Bieber cover), but it packs an emotional punch, too.
Writing, Park said, is often her way of working through things. When she put pen to paper on "My Old Ass," she was a new mom and staying in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic. One night, she and her whole nuclear family slept under the same roof. She didn't know it then, but it would be the last time, and she started wondering what it would be like to have known that.
In the film, older Elliott ( Aubrey Plaza ) advises younger Elliott ( Maisy Stella ) to not be so eager to leave her provincial town, her younger brothers and her parents and to slow down and appreciate things as they are. She also tells her to stay away from a guy named Chad who she meets the next day and discovers that, unfortunately, he's quite cute.
At 38, Park is just getting started as a filmmaker. Her first, "The Fallout," in which Jenna Ortega plays a teen in the aftermath of a school shooting, had one of those pandemic releases that didn't even feel real. But it did get the attention of Margot Robbie 's production company LuckyChap Entertainment, who reached out to Park to see what other ideas she had brewing.
"They were very instrumental in encouraging me to go with it," Park said. "They're just really even-keeled, good people, which makes... Read More