By David Bauder, Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --It’s not just the city of Cleveland that’s happy with LeBron James and his comeback Cavaliers.
The seven-game series with the Golden State Warriors was the most-watched NBA Finals since 1998, the year Michael Jordan won the last of his six titles, the Nielsen company said Tuesday. Game 7 on Sunday, seen by 31 million viewers, was the most popular individual Finals game since Jordan’s clincher – with 10 million more people watching than during any other playoff game this year.
It was a winner-take-all game for the NBA championship involving the league’s two best players, and it went down to the last minute.
“I’m sure (ABC) wishes they were able to foresee that and price their ads accordingly,” said Jon Swallen, chief research officer for Kantar Media.
The series as a whole averaged 20.2 million viewers, Nielsen said. No NBA Finals that didn’t involve Jordan has scored as high since 1989. The last time Cleveland was in the Finals, in 2007, the series averaged 9.3 million viewers.
Kantar Media estimates that ABC earned $295 million in advertising revenue from the seven-game series, or about $120 million more than if it had been a four-game sweep. While ABC still would have earned advertising revenue for entertainment programming if there weren’t extra games, it wouldn’t have been that much more, Swallen said.
ABC sets ad rates before the playoffs begin, with prices escalating if the Finals go to six or seven games. But since the network couldn’t have predicted a finale that was the year’s most popular program after the Super Bowl and the Oscars, Sunday’s advertisers got a relative bargain, he said.
That includes ABC: an estimated 15 percent of Sunday’s ads were touting upcoming ABC shows, and exposure before 31 million people can significantly boost awareness of the network’s upcoming shows, he said.
The NBA series also boosted ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel, who records a show to air before each night’s game in the East, and after the game out West. Thursday’s episode, with Oprah Winfrey, drew an all-time best 4.8 million viewers for a Kimmel show.
For the week, the games helped ABC to an average of 10.5 million viewers in prime time. CBS and NBC were tied for second with 4.57 million viewers, Fox had 3.1 million, Univision had 2.6 million, Telemundo had 1.4 million, ION Television had 1.3 million and the CW had 900,000.
Fox News Channel was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 2.04 million viewers in prime time. HGTV had 1.56 million, TBS had 1.42 million, USA had 1.31 million and Disney had 1.3 million.
NBC’s “Nightly News” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 7.9 million viewers. ABC’s “World News” was second with 7.8 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.5 million viewers.
Below are primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for June 13-19. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.
1. NBA Finals Game 7: Cleveland at Golden State, ABC, 31.02 million viewers.
2. “NBA Trophy Presentation,” ABC, 27.77 million.
3. NBA Finals, Game 6: Golden State at Cleveland, ABC, 20.7 million.
4. NBA Finals, Game 5, Cleveland at Golden State, ABC, 20.54 million.
5. “America’s Got Talent” (Tuesday), NBC, 11.54 million.
6. “Game of Thrones,” HBO, 7.66 million.
7. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 6.91 million.
8. “NCIS,” CBS, 6.88 million.
9. “American Ninja Warrior,” NBC, 6.84 million.
10. “NCIS: New Orleans,” CBS, 6.726 million.
11. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 6.725 million.
12. “NBA Countdown: Game 6,” ABC, 6.39 million.
13. “Person of Interest,” CBS, 6.27 million.
14. “NBA Countdown: Game 7,” ABC, 6.1 million.
15. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 5.89 million.
16. “NBA Countdown: Game 5,” ABC, 5.65 million.
17. Copa America Soccer: Mexico vs. Chile, Univision, 5.41 million.
18. “To Tell the Truth” (Tuesday, 10 p.m.), ABC, 5.22 million.
19. “To Tell the Truth” (Tuesday, 8 p.m., ABC, 5.21 million.
20. “Hawaii Five-0,” CBS, 5.19 million.
“Heretic” and “Maria” Set As Red Carpet Premieres At AFI Fest
The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced that Heretic, the psychological thriller starring Hugh Grant, and Maria, based on the life of opera singer Maria Callas starring Angelina Jolie, will round out the Red Carpet Premieres section at this year’s AFI Fest. The Heretic Gala Screening will take place on Thursday, October 24, and the Maria Gala Screening will be held on Saturday, October 26. The complete Red Carpet Premieres section includes the world premieres of Music By John Williams, Robert Zemeckis’ Here, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2. All Red Carpet Premieres will take place at the historic TCL Chinese Theatre. The full lineup for AFI Fest 2024 will be unveiled on October 1.
“At the heart of AFI Fest is an unwavering dedication to celebrating the best in global cinema--together,” said Bob Gazzale, AFI president and CEO. “We look forward to uniting artists and audiences once again to be inspired by the art form in a powerful sense of community.”
Heretic follows two young missionaries (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) who are forced to prove their faith when they knock on the wrong door and are greeted by a diabolical Mr. Reed (portrayed by Grant), becoming ensnared in his deadly game of cat-and-mouse. The film is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods and produced by Stacey Sher, Beck, Woods, Julia Glausi and Jeanette Volturno. The film will be released nationwide by A24 on November 8.
Directed by Pablo LarraĂn, Maria presents a tumultuous and beautiful depiction of one of the world’s most renowned artists and reimagines the legendary soprano in her final days in Paris, as Callas (Jolie)... Read More