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.
Carrie Coon Relishes Being Part Of An Ensemble–From “The Gilded Age” To “His Three Daughters”
It can be hard to catch Carrie Coon on her own.
She is far more likely to be found in the thick of an ensemble. That could be on TV, in "The Gilded Age," for which she was just Emmy nominated, or in the upcoming season of "The White Lotus," which she recently shot in Thailand. Or it could be in films, most relevantly, Azazel Jacobs' new drama, "His Three Daughters," in which Coon stars alongside Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen as sisters caring for their dying father.
But on a recent, bright late-summer morning, Coon is sitting on a bench in the bucolic northeast Westchester town of Pound Ridge. A few years back, she and her husband, the playwright Tracy Letts, moved near here with their two young children, drawn by the long rows of stone walls and a particularly good BLT from a nearby cafe that Letts, after biting into, declared must be within 15 miles of where they lived.
In a few days, they would both fly to Los Angeles for the Emmys (Letts was nominated for his performance in "Winning Time" ). But Coon, 43, was then largely enmeshed in the day-to-day life of raising a family, along with their nightly movie viewings, which Letts pulls from his extensive DVD collection. The previous night's choice: "Once Around," with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfus.
Coon met Letts during her breakthrough performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" on Broadway in 2012. She played the heavy-drinking housewife Honey. It was the first role that Coon read and knew, viscerally, she had to play. Immediately after saying this, Coon sighs.
"It sounds like something some diva would say in a movie from the '50s," Coon says. "I just walked around in my apartment in my slip and I had pearls and a little brandy. I made a grocery list and I just did... Read More