TV Ratings: Celtics, ABC rise on Sunday night

Basketball audience doubles hockey's.

By Alan Sepinwall Monday, Jun 7, 2010 11:55 AM

Boston Celtics guard Ray Allen.

Credit: Chris Carlson/AP

Fast National ratings for Sunday, June 6, 2010:

ABC's coverage of the Boston Celtics-Los Angeles Lakers NBA Finals rematch again dominated the ratings on Sunday night, doubling up the audience NBC got for its own coverage of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers.

Overall, ABC's coverage of the Celtics' close Game 2 win averaged 12.3 million viewers, and a 5.0/13.7 rating in the 18-49 demographic. Meanwhile, NBC's coverage of the Blackhawks' high-scoring Game 5 win averaged 6 million viewers, and a 2.3/6 in 18-49.

Both games began at 8 Eastern. In the 7 o'clock hour, ABC's Jimmy Kimmel primetime special and NBA pregame show combined to average 7.5 million viewers and a 3.0/10 in 18-49. CBS' "60 Minutes" drew 10.2 million viewers and a 1.4/5 in the demo. NBC ran a half-hour infomercial for a new Harry Potter attraction at one of its theme parks and drew 2.6 million viewers and a 0.7/3 in the demo, followed at 7:30 by a half-hour "Dateline NBC" that drew 3.6 million viewers and a 0.7/2. Fox's burn-off runs of "Til Death" and "Sons of Tucson" both hovered around 2 million viewers, with "Til Death" doing 0.7/3 and "Tucson" 0.7/2 in the demo.

CBS aired drama repeats from 8 to 11, with "Medium" drawing 5.1 million and a 0.9/3, "The Good Wife" getting 4.9 million and a 0.7/2 and "Cold Case" doing 5.9 million and 1.2/3. Fox's animated comedy repeats predictably trailed the CBS dramas in viewers but beat them in demos, with "The Simpsons" (3.8 million, 1.6/5), "The Cleveland Show" (3.6 million, 1.6/5), "Family Guy" (4.7 million, 2.0/5) and "American Dad" (4.2 million, 1.9/5).

All ratings information comes from preliminary Fast National Nielsen data, which includes live and same-day DVR viewing. All numbers are subject to change, particularly in the case of live events.

Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching

Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com