NBC Gets Pro and Con Results From NBA Finals

The NBA Finals provided NBC good and bad news last week, as the two games outscored ratings from a year ago but deprived the network of the boost additional telecasts would have provided, based on viewing estimates issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Shaquille O’Neal and the Lakers’ march to another title was still enough to lift NBC atop the ratings for the third time in the last four weeks, along with the heavily promoted (if critically reviled) “Fear Factor,” which easily won its time slot June 11. Tune-in for the second installment--shifted to Sunday to make room for a possible sixth game of the NBA Finals--fell 40% off the debut but rebounded to more than 10 million viewers on Monday.

Demonstrating how viewers explore alternatives when presented a menu largely consisting of reruns, NBC’s “Must-See TV” Thursday lineup slipped behind ABC and CBS, with “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” beating “Three Sisters,” the sitcom NBC has parked behind “Friends” for the summer. In similar fashion, “Dharma & Greg” has outdrawn “Frasier” on Tuesdays three consecutive weeks after trailing by an average 3.5 million viewers from October through May.

ABC opted to take on basketball with the premiere of a new drama, “The Beast,” and was promptly defanged. The network took an even worse tumble Saturday with a made-for-TV special, the World Stunt Awards.

National Nielsen Viewership

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (June 11-17) as compiled by Nielsen Media Research. They are based on the average number of people who watched a program from start to finish. Nielsen estimates that there are 260 million potential U.S. viewers age 2 and older. Viewership is listed here in millions.

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Net- View- Program work ers 1. NBA Finals, Game 4 NBC 19.97 2. NBA Finals, Game 5 NBC 17.36 3. Millionaire (Tue.) ABC 14.63 4. The Weakest Link NBC 13.95 5. Primetime Thursday ABC 13.86 6. Millionaire (Thur.) ABC 13.59 7. Every. Loves Ray. CBS 12.67 8. Fear Factor (Mon.) NBC 11.91 9. 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 11.04 10. Becker CBS 10.67 11. CSI CBS 10.31 12. Dharma & Greg ABC 10.22 13. “Chance of a Lifetime” CBS 9.83 14. Millionaire (Fri.) ABC 9.78 15. King of Queens CBS 9.77 16. “Robinson Crusoe” ABC 9.56 17. Friends NBC 9.48 18. 20/20 Downtown ABC 9.32 19. 48 Hours (Mon.) CBS 9.17 20. Yes, Dear CBS 9.05 21. “AFI 100 Years 100 Thrills” CBS 8.98 22. The Weakest Link (Sun.) NBC 8.96 23. Touched by an Angel CBS 8.70 24. Will & Grace NBC 8.58 25. 60 Minutes CBS 8.51 26. 48 Hours CBS 8.31 27. The District CBS 8.26 28. Frasier (9:30 p.m.) NBC 8.10 29. “Mirror Has Two Faces” CBS 8.08 30. Just Shoot Me NBC 7.99 31. Malcolm in the Middle FOX 7.74 32. ER NBC 7.62 33. Whose Line? (Thur., 8:30) ABC 7.60 34. The Drew Carey Show ABC 7.49 35. The West Wing NBC 7.47 36. Ed NBC 7.37 37. Frasier (9 p.m.) NBC 7.36 38. Frasier (8 p.m.) NBC 7.26 39. Three Sisters NBC 7.22 40. Fear Factor (Sun.) NBC 7.12 41. The Simpsons FOX 7.09 42. Diagnosis Murder (9 p.m.) CBS 7.08 43. The Practice ABC 7.06 44. The Geena Davis Show ABC 7.04 45. Diagnosis Murder CBS 6.97 46. JAG (Thur.) CBS 6.95 47. Spin City ABC 6.87 48. NYPD Blue ABC 6.74 49. Millionaire (Sun.) ABC 6.68 50. Walker, Texas Ranger CBS 6.65 51. My Wife & Kids (9:30 p.m.) ABC 6.61 52. Whose Line? (Thur., 8 p.m.) ABC 6.58 53. Whose Line? (Wed.) ABC 6.47 54. America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.32 55. The Beast ABC 6.30 56. Nash Bridges CBS 6.29 Malcolm in Middle (Wed.) FOX 6.29 58. Drew Carey Show (8 p.m.) ABC 6.27 59. That ‘70s Show FOX 6.23 60. Kristin NBC 6.20 61. Grounded for Life FOX 6.13 62. “Congo” NBC 6.01 63. Ed (Tue.) NBC 5.97 64. Dateline NBC (Sun.) NBC 5.88 65. Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.84 66. Titus FOX 5.70 67. My Wife & Kids (9 p.m.) ABC 5.48 68. Ally McBeal FOX 5.07 69. “Million Dollar Mysteries” FOX 5.04 70. Boston Public (Mon.) FOX 4.98 WWF Smackdown! UPN 4.98 72. My Wife & Kids (8 p.m.) ABC 4.90 73. Dark Angel FOX 4.87 74. Ladies Man CBS 4.81 75. Cops FOX 4.61 76. My Wife & Kids (8:30 p.m.) ABC 4.57 77. Boston Public (Sun.) FOX 4.56 78. Walker/Ranger (8 p.m.) CBS 4.54 79. “American Werewolf/Paris” FOX 4.46 80. King of the Hill FOX 4.42 81. “Headliners & Legends” NBC 4.28 82. Futurama FOX 3.94 8 p.m.) ABC 6.58 83. 7th Heaven WB 3.51 84. “Outrageous Vacations” ABC 3.30 85. Making/Band (8:30 p.m.) ABC 3.22 86. Flix From Frog WB 3.16 87. Making the Band (8 p.m.) ABC 3.15 88. “World Stunt Awards” ABC 3.13 89. The Lone Gunmen (8 p.m.) FOX 3.08 90. Freaklinks FOX 3.02 91. The Parkers UPN 2.96 92. The Hughleys UPN 2.95 93. Girlfriends UPN 2.86 94. Charmed WB 2.71 95. The Parkers (8 p.m.) UPN 2.65 96. Sabrina, Teen. Witch (8:30) WB 2.63 97. Gilmore Girls WB 2.60 98. Sabrina, the Teenage Witch WB 2.58 99. Nikki WB 2.56 100. Star Trek: Voyager (9 p.m.) UPN 2.41 101. For Your Love WB 2.39 102. Steve Harvey (8:30 p.m.) WB 2.38 103. “The Assignment” UPN 2.28 104. Steve Harvey Show (8 p.m.) WB 2.10 105. The PJs (7:30 p.m.) WB 2.00 106. Star Trek: Voyager (8 p.m.) UPN 1.99 107. Dawson’s Creek WB 1.95 108. Popstars WB 1.86 109. Buffy the Vampire Slayer WB 1.81 110. Angel WB 1.72 111. 7 Days (9 p.m.) UPN 1.71 112. 7 Days UPN 1.66 113. The PJs (7 p.m.) WB 1.65

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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 Season week to date NBC 9.75 million 11.43 CBS 8.27 12.18 ABC 7.77 11.99 FOX 4.99 9.23 UPN 2.80 3.71 WB 2.43 3.65

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