The NBA Finals is off and running with its best ratings through two games since the Chicago Bulls’ last championship in 1998. Now ABC has to hope the Cleveland Cavaliers can make it competitive.
The first two games, both won by the Golden State Warriors, averaged 19.2 million viewers, the Nielsen company said. The interest in championship series usually increase if they are evenly matched, so if the Cavs can take a few games ABC would be in great shape.
Unfortunately for the network, the Warriors haven’t lost in the playoffs yet.
NBC had a strong showing with the debut of Megyn Kelly’s newsmagazine, “Sunday Night,” featuring her interview with Vladimir Putin. It landed among the week’s 10 most-watched TV shows and, although it lost to CBS’ “60 Minutes” in the time slot, won among younger viewers.
Basketball led ABC, which averaged 6.8 million viewers, to a weekly victory in primetime. NBC had 5.2 million viewers, CBS had 4.4 million, Fox had 2.3 million, Univision had 1.5 million, ION television had 1.3 million, Telemundo had 870,000 and the CW had 820,000.
Fox News Channel was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 2.21 million viewers in primetime. HGTV had 1.49 million, MSNBC had 1.32 million, USA had 1.27 million and TBS had 1.23 million.
ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 7.5 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” was second with 7.1 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 5.7 million.
Below are primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for May 29-June 4. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.
1. NBA Finals: Cleveland vs. Golden State, Game 2, ABC, 19.69 million.
2. NBA Finals: Cleveland vs. Golden State, Game 1, ABC, 18.7 million.
3. “America’s Got Talent,” NBC 12.32 million.
4. “World of Dance,” NBC, 9.71 million.
5. “Little Big Shots,” NBC, 7.45 million.
6. “NCIS,” CBS, 7.35 million.
7. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 6.79 million.
8. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 6.73 million.
9. “Bull,” CBS, 6.51 million.
10. “Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly,” NBC, 6.2 million.
11. “NBA Countdown” (Game 1), ABC, 6.03 million.
12. “The Bachelorette,” ABC, 5.69 million.
13. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 5.57 million.
14. “NCIS: Los Angeles” (Sunday, 8 p.m.), CBS, 5.12 million.
15. “Criminal Minds,” CBS, 5.03 million.
16. “NCIS: Los Angeles” (Wednesday, 8 p.m.), CBS, 4.96 million.
17. NHL Stanley Cup Final: Nashville vs. Pittsburgh, Game 1, NBC, 4.86 million.
18. “Hawaii Five-0,” CBS, 4.8 million.
19. “NBA Countdown” (Game 2), ABC, 4.78 million.
20. “Dateline NBC,” NBC, 4.75 million.
