By Lynn Elber, Television Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --When the NBA playoffs take the TV court even the most popular shows find the competition daunting.
Last week's No. 1 program was the Golden State-Dallas conference finals matchup in which the Warriors extended their winning streak to three out of three. The first two games were among the top 10 programs, with playoff games overall claiming a quarter of the top 20, according to Nielsen figures released Tuesday.
Viewers fit in time for favorite series including CBS' "FBI," whose next-to-last episode for the season was the most-watched drama. The network pulled this week's season finale because its plot, about a cache of guns linked to a student, was deemed too close to Tuesday's mass killings at a Texas elementary school.
CBS was the top network primetime television, averaging 4.4 million viewers. ABC had 3.74 million viewers, NBC had 2.95 million, Fox had 2 million, Univision had 1.4 million, Ion Television had 950,000 and Telemundo had 800,000.
On the strength of the basketball playoffs, TNT led the cable networks with a 2.78 million viewer average. ESPN had 2.27 million, Fox News Channel had 2.26 million, MSNBC had 884956,000 and HGTV had 927,000.
ABC's "World News Tonight" won the evening news ratings race with an average of 7.4 million viewers. NBC's "Nightly News" averaged 6.1 million viewers and the "CBS Evening News" had 4.5 million.
For the week of May 16-22, the top 20 primetime shows, their networks and viewerships:
NBA Playoffs: Golden State at Dallas (Sunday), TNT, 7.42 million.
"FBI," CBS, 7.15 million.
"Young Sheldon," CBS, 7.06 million.
"Chicago Fire," NBC, 6.79 million.
NBA Playoffs: Dallas at Golden State (Friday), TNT, 6.77 million.
NBA Playoffs: Dallas at Golden State (Wednesday), TNT, 6.52 million.
"NCIS," CBS, 6.51 million.
"American Idol," ABC, 6.49 million.
"60 Minutes," CBS, 6.28 million.
"Chicago Med," NBC, 6.24 million.
NBA Playoffs: Boston at Miami (Tuesday), ESPN, 6.07 million.
NBA Playoffs: Boston at Miami (Thursday), ESPN, 6.05 million.
"FBI: International," CBS, 5.82 million.
"Survivor," CBS, 5.7 million.
"911," Fox, 5.56 million.
"The Neighborhood," CBS, 5.5 million.
"Chicago PD," NBC, 5.47 million.
"FBI: Most Wanted," CBS, 5.46 million.
"Bob Hearts Abishola," CBS, 5.33 million.
"This Is Us," NBC, 5.32 million.
Harvey Weinstein hit with new sex crime charge in New York
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York, as he awaits retrial in his landmark #MeToo case.
Details of the new allegations were not immediately available. He was charged with committing a criminal sex act.
The jailed ex-movie mogul has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Weinstein had been indicted on additional sex crime charges that weren't part of the case that led to his now-overturned 2020 conviction. But the new indictment was sealed until his arraignment.
Prosecutors have said that the grand jury heard evidence of up to three alleged assaults โ two in hotels in the Tribeca neighborhood and one at a lower Manhattan residential building. The purported incidents took place from the mid-2000s to 2016, prosecutors said.
But it's not clear whether any of those allegations underlie the new indictment.
While bracing for the new charges, Weinstein also is awaiting retrial after New York state's highest court this spring overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. The high court, called the Court of Appeals, ordered a new trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the then-trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case. That judge's term expired in 2022, and he is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said they'll seek to fold the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein's lawyers say it should be a separate case.
Weinstein, who also was convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case, remains behind bars while awaiting his New York retrial.
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