NBA Finals viewership up 24 percent over 2021

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, center, holds up the Bill Russell Trophy for most valuable player after the Warriors defeated the Boston Celtics in Game 6 to win basketball's NBA Finals championship, Thursday, June 16, 2022, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) (Steven Senne, Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

NEW YORK ā€“ Nearly 14 million people watched the Golden State Warriors win its fourth NBA championship since 2015 by beating the Boston Celtics in the sixth game of their series.

The series that matched the NBA's most current dynasty against the one with the most championships overall averaged 12.3 million viewers, which was 24% more than the 2021 series between Milwaukee and Phoenix, the Nielsen company said.

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As is typical, the series built in audience as it went on, with the 13.99 million people who watched the final game nearly a million more than the audience for any other game, Nielsen said.

The first game of hockey's Stanley Cup Finals between Colorado and Tampa Bay was seen by 4.2 million people last week.

Each of these sports events was seen on ABC, allowing the network to dominate the weekly ratings race. ABC averaged 5 million viewers in prime time last week, CBS averaged 2.8 million, NBC averaged 2.6 million, Fox had 1.5 million, Univision had 1.1 million, Telemundo had 940,000 and Ion Television had 900,000.

Fox News Channel topped cable networks with an average of 2.15 million viewers. MSNBC had 1.37 million, HGTV had 927,000, Discovery had 779,000 and TLC had 750,000.

ABC's ā€œWorld News Tonightā€ won the evening news ratings race with an average of 7.2 million viewers. NBC's ā€œNightly Newsā€ had 6.4 million viewers and the ā€œCBS Evening Newsā€ had 4.7 million.

For the week of June 13-19, the top 20 prime-time programs, their networks and viewerships:

1. NBA Finals Game 6: Golden State at Boston, ABC, 13.99 million.

2. NBA Finals Game 5: Boston at Golden State, ABC, 13.02 million.

3. ā€œAmerica's Got Talent,ā€ NBC, 6.21 million.

4. ā€œ60 Minutes,ā€ CBS, 5.58 million.

5. ā€œ60 Minutesā€ (Sunday, 8 p.m.), CBS, 4.7 million.

6. Stanley Cup Finals Game 1: Tampa Bay at Colorado, ABC, 4.2 million.

7. ā€œThe Price is Right 50th Anniversary,ā€ CBS, 4.02 million.

8. ā€œNBA Countdownā€ (Thursday), ABC, 4 million.

9. ā€œFBI,ā€ CBS, 3.81 million.

10. Stanley Cup Finals Game 2: Tampa Bay at Colorado, ABC, 3.75 million.

11. ā€œAmerica's Funniest Home Videos,ā€ ABC, 3.68 million.

12. ā€œStanley Cup Pregameā€ (Wednesday), ABC, 3.65 million.

13. ā€œNBA Countdownā€ (Monday), ABC, 3.61 million.

14. ā€œYoung Sheldon,ā€ CBS, 3.52 million.

15. ā€œNCIS,ā€ CBS, 3.37 million.

16. ā€œTucker Carlson Tonightā€ (Tuesday), Fox News, 3.27 million.

17. ā€œThe Neighborhood,ā€ CBS, 3.26 million.

18. ā€œTucker Carlson Tonightā€ (Monday), Fox News, 3.2 million.

19. ā€œFBI: Most Wanted,ā€ CBS, 3.184 million.

20. ā€œFBI: International,ā€ CBS, 3.176 million.


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