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Friday, June 23, 2023

TV Ratings: NBA Finals Game 5 Tops Prime-Time


ABC’s coverage of the 2023 NBA Finals averaged its smallest audience when held during its customary time since 2007, erasing the previous low set a year earlier.

The Denver Nuggets’ five-game victory over the Miami Heat averaged 11.65 million viewers, 5.5% less than the 12.38 million average for the Golden State Warriors’ six-game victory over the Boston Celtics in the 2022 Finals. The series average includes the “Stephen A’s World” alternate presentation of Game 1 on ESPN that averaged 544,000.

Denver’s title-clinching 94-89 victory June 12 averaged a series-high 13.08 million viewers, according to The L-A Times citing live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen. The previous high was 11.91 million for Miami’s 111-108 victory in Game 2 on Sunday, June 4.

ABC’s coverage of the 2023 NBA Finals averaged its smallest audience when held during its customary time since 2007, erasing the previous low set a year earlier.

The Denver Nuggets’ five-game victory over the Miami Heat averaged 11.65 million viewers, 5.5% less than the 12.38 million average for the Golden State Warriors’ six-game victory over the Boston Celtics in the 2022 Finals. The series average includes the “Stephen A’s World” alternate presentation of Game 1 on ESPN that averaged 544,000.

Denver’s title-clinching 94-89 victory June 12 averaged a series-high 13.08 million viewers, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen on Wednesday. The previous high was 11.91 million for Miami’s 111-108 victory in Game 2 on Sunday, June 4.

The 2023 Finals consisted of two teams that did not match Golden State’s star power or Boston’s longtime national following. ABC has carried the NBA Finals since 2003.

The only other prime-time program between June 12 and Sunday to average more than 5 million viewers was NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” which averaged 5.96 million viewers.

NBC was first for the week, averaging 3.79 million viewers, thanks in large measure to the 8.8-million average for its three-hour, nine-minute prime-time portion of Sunday’s final round of the U.S. Open golf tournament at the Los Angeles Country Club.

ABC was second after back-to-back first-place finishes, averaging 3.61 million viewers. Its top-rated program outside the NBA Finals coverage was the 8 p.m. Thursday rerun of “Celebrity Family Feud,” which was sixth for the week, averaging 3.34 million viewers. CBS was third, averaging 2.59 million viewers. “60 Minutes” lead its ratings and was fourth for the week — second among non-sports programs — averaging 4.34 million viewers for an edition with three previously broadcast segments that were updated.

The top 20 prime-time programs consisted of Game 5 of the NBA Finals and its 32-minute pregame show; the NBC series “America’s Got Talent” and “American Ninja Warrior”; CBS’ “60 Minutes”; reruns of eight CBS scripted series; episodes of five ABC alternative series and its news magazine, “20/20”; and the June 13 edition of the Fox News Channel political talk show “Hannity.”

📺CABLE TV

The top rated prime-time cable program was “Hannity,” which averaged 2.87 million viewers, 19th overall, airing on June 13, the day former President Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 felony charges in connection with his handling of classified documents and alleged attempts to prevent the government from recovering them.

Fox News Channel won the cable network race, averaging 1.53 million viewers, and returned to first among cable news networks one week after MSNBC ended FNC’s 120-week streak. MSNBC was second, averaging 1.4 million and ESPN third, averaging 1.01 million. CNN finished seventh among cable networks, averaging 640,000 viewers.


  • Fox News averaged 1,064,000 viewers across the entire day from June 12 to June 18, with MSNBC averaging 856,000 viewers and CNN averaging 628,000, according to data released by Nielsen—extending Fox News’ streak as the top-rated cable TV channel in total-day ratings, a position it has held all year.
  • Fox News also outpaced MSNBC in primetime last week, averaging 1,536,000 viewers to MSNBC’s 1,397,000 and CNN’s 800,000, after MSNBC dethroned Fox News in primetime a week earlier amid coverage of Trump’s indictment.
  • The top four programs on cable TV last week included three showings of Fox News talk show The Five and one slot of Hannity—the former of which took the top spot, with an average of nearly 3 million viewers on Tuesday evening, hours after Trump arrived at a Miami federal courthouse to to be arraigned on 37 criminal counts.
  • MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show—which airs Mondays—rounded out The Five and Hannity at the No. 5 spot and pulled in 2.6 million average viewers.

Graphics courtesy of RoadMN


The cable prime-time top 20 consisted of 10 Fox News Channel political talk shows — four broadcasts each of “Hannity” and “The Ingraham Angle” and two of “Fox News Tonight” hosted by Brian Kilmeade; seven MSNBC political talk shows — four editions of “The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell,” the June 13 editions of “Alex Wagner Tonight” and “All In With Chris Hayes” and the June 12 edition of “The Rachel Maddow Show”; TNT’s coverage of Game 5 of hockey’s Stanley Cup Final; ESPN’s coverage of the June 14 game between the New York Mets and New York Yankees; and USA Network’s “WWE Raw.”


📺BROADCAST EVENING NEWS

ABC World News Tonight with David Muir is the top-rated national evening newscast yet again.

TV Newser reports ABC News’ evening juggernaut averaged more than 7.46 million total viewers, the show’s largest average audience in six weeks, and 1.14 million A25-54 viewers this past week. That’s according to live plus same day data from Nielsen for the week beginning June 12, 2023.

WNT marked its 12th consecutive week as the most-watched regularly-scheduled show across U.S. broadcast and cable, and has now defeated its evening news competition from NBC and CBS 237 of the past 238 weeks in average total viewers—and 166 of the last 168 weeks among Adults 25-54.

NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt averaged 6.20 million total viewers for the week of June 12, a seven-week total viewership high, +2% from the prior week and No. 2 among all regularly-scheduled broadcast and cable TV programming. The newscast also marked its most narrow total viewer gap with ABC in 10 weeks.  The CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell averaged 4.55 million total viewers and 697,000 Adults 25-54 for the week of June 12. That’s +4% and +9%, respectively, from what the newscast drew in those measurements the prior week; more week-t0-week growth than the competition. However, the newscast dropped -3% in total viewers and -6% in A25-54 viewers from the year-ago week.


📺LATE NIGHT TV

Graphic Courtesy of RoadMN


📺STREAMING TV

“Extraction 2” was Netflix’s most-streamed movie, with viewers watching the Chris Hemsworth-starring action film for 88.4 million hours the first three days it was available, according to figures released by the streaming service.

Netflix’s most popular program was “Bloodhounds,” with viewers watching the eight-episode Korean action drama for 65.9 million hours the first full week it was available, 135.9% more than the 27.97 million hours the previous week when it was available for three days.

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