TV Ratings: NBA Finals Game 5 lifts ABC on Thursday

Another big night for ABC's Mavericks-Heat coverage

By Daniel Fienberg Friday, Jun 10, 2011 11:56 AM

Jason Terry of the Dallas Mavericks is very proud of himself.

Credit: David J. Phillip/AP

Fast National ratings for Thursday, June 9, 2011.

The Dallas Mavericks are hoping to end the NBA Finals in only one more game, but you can't blame ABC for hoping the Miami Heat stretch the series to seven. Game Five of the NBA Finals, yet another close contest into the waning moments of the 4th Quarter, drew the series' biggest audience to date and helped ABC to a Thursday rout in all measures.

Among adults 18-49, ABC averaged a 5.1 rating for the night, easily tops in the key demographic. FOX was a distant second with a 2.4 rating, far ahead of CBS' 1.4 rating and the 0.8 rating for NBC. The CW averaged a 0.3 rating.

Overall, ABC averaged an estimated 12.91 million viewers and a 7.6 rating/13 share. CBS moved up to second with a 4.6/8 and 7.24 million viewers, beating FOX's 4.2/7 and 6.94 million viewers. There was a big drop to NBC in fourth with 1.5/3 and 2.17 million viewers. The CW averaged 973,000 viewers and a 0.7/1 for the night.

[A reminder: As always in the case of live events, Fast National data is time-period specific and not program specific. So any and all numbers are reflective of the hour of primetime viewership and not necessarily of how many people are watching the live event, specifically the NBC Finals.]

Inside Analysis

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8 p.m. - ABC's NBA Finals pre-game (but also the game itself on the left side of the country) averaged 7.86 million viewers and a 2.8 rating among adults 18-49 to win the 8 p.m. hour. The first hour of FOX's "So You Think You Can Dance" Top 20 reveal averaged 6.82 million viewers and a 2.4 key demo rating for second. CBS' episodes of "The Big Bang Theory" and "Rules of Engagement" averaged 6.66 million viewers for third, far ahead of the 2.05 million viewers to tuned in for episodes of "Community" and "30 Rock" on NBC. The CW's "Vampire Diaries" averaged 1.005 million viewers.

9 p.m. - The start of the NBA Finals game soared to 14.19 million viewers and a 5.6 rating in the key demo for ABC in the 9 p.m. hour. CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" was second overall with 7.385 million viewers. FOX's "So You Think You Can Dance" was third overall with 7.06 million viewers and a distant second in the key demo with a 2.5 rating. Fourth went t NBC's "The Office" and "Parks and Recreation" with 2.14 million viewers. The CW's "Nikita" averaged 941,000 viewers.

10 p.m. - The NBA Finals telecast improved to 16.67 million viewers and a 6.9 key demo rating for ABC in the 10 p.m. hour. CBS' "The Mentalist" averaged 7.67 million viewers for second. A new episode of NBC's "Love Bites" finished third with 2.31 million viewers and a 0.9 rating, almost identical to last week's premiere, for whatever that's worth.

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.

Daniel Fienberg
Executive Editor

A long-time member of the TCA Board and a longer-time blogger of "American Idol," Dan Fienberg writes about TV, except for when he writes about movies or sometimes writes about the Red Sox. But never music. He would sound stupid talking about music.