NBA Finals to Become Highest Rated in History

What might have been Michael Jordan’s last hurrah will definitely be the highest-rated NBA finals in history.

The 40-market overnight rating for Sunday’s Game 6 between the Chicago Bulls and Utah Jazz was a 23.0. When national numbers are released today, NBC will top the record 17.3 set in 1993 for the Chicago-Phoenix Suns finals. (A rating point represents 980,000 households.)

NBC’s average rating through five games is 18.0, 3% ahead of the 17.5 from 1993.

The national rating for Friday’s Game 5 was 19.8, 1% lower than the Game 5 record of 20.1 set last year. NBC estimates that 60.9 million people watched at least part of the game, making it the second-most viewed game in NBA history, trailing the 61.4 million who saw Game 7 of this year’s Eastern Conference finals.