Warriors, Lakers, set ESPN records Friday night
Days ahead of their hotly-anticipated second round showdown, the Warriors and Lakers delivered two of the largest first round NBA playoff audiences in ESPN history Friday night.
Friday’s Kings-Warriors first round NBA playoff Game 6 averaged 4.98 million viewers on ESPN, marking the largest first round playoff audience ever on the network. The previous high was 4.83 million for Lakers-Thunder Game 6 in 2010. As with all multi-year highs, keep in mind out-of-home viewing was not included in Nielsen’s final nationals prior to three years ago.
Sacramento’s series-tying win, which peaked with 6.51 million viewers in the final quarter-hour, posted the largest NBA audience opposite the NFL Draft since the that event expanded to a three-night, primetime schedule in 2010.
In the nightcap, the Lakers’ 40-point Game 6 rout of the Grizzlies averaged 4.64 million — the third-largest first round audience ever on ESPN, behind Lakers-Thunder in ’10 and Kings-Warriors earlier in the night. As should be no surprise given the late start and blowout, viewership peaked in the first quarter-hour at 5.65 million.
Both games increased more than a third over last year’s solo Grizzlies-Timberwolves Game 6, which averaged 3.47 million.
The games swept all of television Friday night in adults 18-49, 18-34 and 25-54, topping the combined figures for the NFL Draft on ABC, ESPN/ESPN2 and NFL Network. Grizzlies-Lakers took top honors with a 1.7 in 18-49, 1.5 in 18-34 and 2.0 in 25-54, followed by Kings-Warriors at a 1.6, 1.3 and 1.9 respectively (the NFL Draft telecasts combined for a 1.5, 1.0 and 1.8).
It should be noted that the draft still combined for a larger audience (5.53M).
Figures for Sunday’s Warriors-Kings Game 7, won by Golden State to set up a second-round matchup with the Lakers, will be posted when released Tuesday.
In other NBA action, Celtics-Hawks Game 6 averaged 2.98 million on TNT Thursday — up 12% from Suns-Pelicans last year (2.65M).
(Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 5.1, network PR)
Source: Sports Media Watch
