NBC Notches Rare Friday-Night Victory
The Lakers were losers Friday night, but NBC was a winner.
The network’s coverage of the third game of the Lakers-Chicago Bulls NBA finals helped it score a Friday night ratings win for the first time since Nov. 17, 1989, according to figures released Monday by the A.C. Nielsen Co.
NBC, which also aired a rerun of the canceled police drama “Hunter” Friday, averaged an 11.2 rating for the night. ABC, which aired reruns of “Full House,” “Family Matters,” “Perfect Strangers” and the canceled “Going Places,” and its “20/20” news magazine, trailed at 11. CBS was third at 7.1 with the canceled “Guns of Paradise” and a re-broadcast of “The Outside Woman,” a 1989 made-for-TV movie. (Each ratings point equals 931,000 households.)
Chicago’s 104-96 overtime victory drew a 15.7 rating, the highest for a third game of the NBA finals. It was the second-highest rated Friday night NBA game ever.
NBC’s last Friday night win came when it aired “Back to the Future,” followed by a preview of “Back to the Future II.”
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