NBA Finals Help NBC Dunk the Competition

Chicago Bulls star Michael Jordan’s last-minute heroics lifted the NBA championship series torecord ratings, helping NBC score a lopsided victory in results issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Viewing of the NBA Finals jumped to an all-time high for Sunday’s concluding game, while the six-game series averaged 29 million viewers--a 14% increase from last year.

With three NBA games in its lineup, NBC’s weekly audience nearly equaled CBS and ABC combined, while Fox--with basketball siphoning audience away from its Sunday shows “TheSimpsons” and “The X-Files”--fell to its lowest-rated week since July. Fox’s coverage of hockey’s Stanley Cup Finals also received a chilly reception, dropping 23% versus a year ago.

Taking a page from NBC’s reruns-can-be-fun playbook, CBS’ “Everybody Loves Raymond” marathon on June 8 provided a solid showcase for that show, easily beating NBC’s “Caroline in the City” and “Suddenly Susan” while trailing ABC’s “20/20.” The Steven Spielberg-produced animated series “Invasion America,” meanwhile, launched with modest premiere numbers on the WB network.

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Cable Top 10

Here are Nielsen’s top 10 cable programs in prime time last week, also ranked by total viewers (in millions).

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Program Network Viewers 1. “Speed 2: Cruise Control” HBO 6.08 2. Boxing HBO 4.97 3. “Men in Black” HBO 4.71 4. Wrestling (Thur., 9:03 p.m.) TBS 4.62 5. Wrestling (Mon., 8 p.m.) TNT 5.64 6. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) USA 4.55 7. South Park COMC 4.16 8. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) TNT 4.09 9. Wrestling (Mon., 8:57 p.m.) USA 3.97 10. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) TNT 3.92

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Network Averages

Here is the number of viewers that each network averaged per hour of prime time, for last week and for the season.

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Last week Season to date NBC 17.14 million 14.81 CBS 9.56 13.67 ABC 8.45 11.88 FOX 6.19 10.21 WB 3.45 4.40 UPN 2.87 3.89

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Southland Viewing

Here are Nielsen’s Top 10 prime-time programs in the Los Angeles area during the same week. The rankings are based on the number of households watching.

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Program Station Households 1. NBA Finals (Sun.) KNBC 981,809 2. Just Shoot Me KNBC 706,301 3. Seinfeld KNBC 701,292 4. Dateline NBC (Tue.) KNBC 676,246 5. 20/20 KABC 661,218 6. ER KNBC 656,209 7. Touched by an Angel KCBS 586,080 8. Dateline NBC (Mon.) KNBC 581,071 Home Improvement KABC 581,071 10. Friends KNBC 576,061

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