Three games of the series helped ABC to its best summer week in the ratings in six years, the Nielsen Co. said Tuesday. Sunday's Game 5 was the most-watched NBA Finals game in five years, since Game 7 of a Detroit-San Antonio series in 2005.
Basketball was so important that ABC won the week even though it had only one other program -- "The Bachelorette" -- among Nielsen's 30 most popular shows last week.
Fox is taking advantage of the lack of competition by increasing the buzz factor of "Glee" even further. An original episode of the teen musical was behind only the basketball games, NBC's "America's Got Talent" and an "NCIS" rerun in viewership last week.
For the week of June 7-13, ABC averaged 8 million viewers (4.9 rating, 9 share) and easily won among the 18-to-49-year-old age group, too. CBS had 7.1 million viewers (4.7, 8), Fox had 5.3 million and NBC 5.1 million (both 3.2, 6), ION Television had 1.2 million (0.8, 1) and the CW had 930,000 (0.6, 1).
NBC's "Nightly News" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 7.5 million viewers (5.1, 11). ABC's "World News" was second with 6.9 million (4.8, 10) and the "CBS Evening News" had 5.4 million (3.7, 8).
1 NBA Finals: Lakers vs. Celtics, Game 5 (ABC)
2 NBA Finals: Lakers vs. Celtics, Game 4 (ABC)
3 NBA Finals: Lakers vs. Celtics, Game 3 (ABC)
