Ratings Soar From Last Season
It’s all breaking right for the NBA and ABC. First, they got the Lakers in the Finals, which means a boost in the ratings. And now they have a series that is up for grabs, with the favored Lakers trailing the Detroit Pistons, one game to none.
The overnight rating for Game 1 was an 11.6 with an 18 share, which represents a 43% increase over the 8.1/13 for Game 1 last year between the San Antonio Spurs and New Jersey Nets.
In Los Angeles, Sunday night’s game got a 29.3 rating and a 45 share, compared with a 33.2/45 in Detroit. In Detroit, the game started at 9 p.m., when more people were watching television, thus the higher rating.
The rating represents a percentage of all television households, and a share represents a percentage of households where television is being watched.
Los Angeles is the nation’s second-largest television market; Detroit is the 10th.
The game nationally was the highest-rated program on network television Sunday night. NBC’s “Law and Order: Criminal Intent” and “Crossing Jordan,” combined, averaged an 8.4/13.
-- Larry Stewart
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