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ABC Rolls to Big Win as NBA Finals Again Dominate Prime Time

Jun 13, 2014  •  Post A Comment

Much as the San Antonio Spurs have dominated their NBA Finals matchup so far with the Miami Heat, ABC continues to dominate prime time with its coverage of the series.

TVbytheNumbers.com reports that Thursday's Game 4, in which the Spurs took a 3-1 series lead by rolling to a 107-86 win, delivered a 5.2 average rating in the key 18-49 demo, based on Nielsen overnights. The closest anything came on the other broadcast channels was a 2.0 for a "Big Bang Theory" repeat on CBS.

ABC's basketball warmup show, "NBA Countdown," did better than that, notching a 2.4 average in 18-49, the same number the show did Tuesday. Opening prime time on ABC, "Jimmy Kimmel Live: Game Night" delivered a 1.9 — also matching Tuesday's number.

The game itself was up 6% from Game 3, but down 10% from last year's Game 4. The report notes that the numbers are subject to more than the usual adjustments due to the nature of live sports programming.

The other big four broadcast nets finished in a pack, well off the pace set by ABC. Fox came out slightly ahead of that bunch, with "Hell's Kitchen" pulling a 1.6 average in 18-49 — off 6% from last week — and "Gang Related" holding steady with a 0.8.

NBC, CBS and Univision finished in a dead heat for third place, with CBS airing an all-repeat lineup. NBC's best result in viewers 18-49 was a 1.2 for "Last Comic Standing," off 14% from a week ago. NBC's "Hollywood Game Night" dipped 9% to a 1.0, while back-to-back episodes of "Undateable" scored a 1.0 (steady with last week) and a 0.9 (down 10%).

For prime time overall, ABC averaged a 4.2 rating in viewers 18-49, topping Fox (1.2) and Univision, NBC and CBS (all with 1.1 averages). ABC was also well ahead in total viewers, averaging 10.6 million to lead CBS (5.4 million), NBC (3.8 million), Fox (3.4 million) and Univision (2.8 million).

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