Viewers just follow the bouncing ball -- and puck

Viewers flocked to telecasts of sporting events last week, with coverage of the NBA Finals and hockey’s Stanley Cup finals drawing increased viewership, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

ABC’s coverage of the first two games of the NBA Finals between the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat averaged 11.96 million viewers, a 13% increase over the 10.62 million average for the opening two games of the 2005 Finals between the Detroit Pistons and San Antonio Spurs.

NBC’s coverage of the Edmonton Oilers’ 2-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals drew 2.5 million viewers, a 25% increase over the 2 million that ABC averaged for its coverage of Game 3 of the 2004 Stanley Cup finals between the Calgary Flames and Tampa Bay Lightning.

(The Stanley Cup finals weren’t played in 2005 because of the National Hockey League owners’ season-long lockout of the players.)

The two NBA Finals games were the most-watched prime-time programs in the Los Angeles market from June 5 through June 11, led by Thursday’s Game 1, which attracted 944,000 viewers.

Among first-run summer entertainment programming, Thursday’s premiere of the NBC drama “Windfall” drew 9.04 million viewers, the most for a summer drama premiere since NBC’s “Mysterious Ways” on July 24, 2000.

“Windfall” finished third in its 10 to 11 p.m. time period behind ABC’s NBA Finals telecast (11.51 million) and a rerun of “Without a Trace” on CBS (11.37 million).

However, “Windfall” was second behind the basketball game among viewers ages 18 to 49, the demographic NBC, ABC and Fox target, and first among all adult female categories.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (June 5-11) 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 there are 277.93 million potential viewers in the U.S. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* Program Net- work View- ers Program Net- work View- ers

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*--* 1 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 18.24 2 CSI CBS 12.44 3 NBA Finals (Sun.) ABC 12.41 4 CSI: Miami CBS 11.92 5 NBA Finals (Thu.) ABC 11.51

6 Without a Trace CBS 11.37 7 Apprentice 5 NBC 11.25 8 So You Think Can Dance (Wed., 9 p.m.) FOX 10.73 9 So You Think Can Dance (Thu., 9 p.m.) FOX 10.24 10 60 Minutes CBS 9.90

11 NCIS CBS 9.46 12 CSI: NY CBS 9.45 13 Windfall (Thu.) NBC 9.04 14 House (9 p.m.) FOX 8.96 15 Last Comic Standing 4 (9 p.m.) NBC 8.63

16 48 Hours Mystery (Tue.) CBS 8.35 17 48 Hours Mystery (Sat.) CBS 8.29 18 Old Christine CBS 8.23 19 Criminal Minds CBS 8.21 20 Numb3rs CBS 8.17

21 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 8.05 22 Two and a Half Men CBS 7.97 23 Law & Order NBC 7.81 24 Dateline: NBC (Wed.) NBC 7.72 “The Tony Awards” CBS 7.72

26 Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 7.16 27 The Unit CBS 7.08 28 Close to Home CBS 6.97 29 House (8 p.m.) FOX 6.77 30 Gameshow Marathon (Thu.) CBS 6.72

31 My Name Is Earl (8:30 p.m.) NBC 6.69 32 Gameshow Marathon (Wed.) CBS 6.67 33 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 6.66 34 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 6.45 35 My Name Is Earl (9 p.m.) NBC 6.42

36 20/20 ABC 6.41 37 So You Think Can Dance (Thu., 8 p.m.) FOX 6.31 38 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 6.26 39 Windfall (Sun.) NBC 6.25 40 Law & Order: SVU (Fri.) NBC 6.24

41 My Name Is Earl (9:30 p.m.) NBC 6.14 42 So You Think Can Dance (Wed., 8 p.m.) FOX 6.05 King of Queens CBS 6.05 44 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 5.98 45 Family Guy FOX 5.91

46 The Simpsons FOX 5.87 47 My Name Is Earl (8 p.m.) NBC 5.85 48 America’s Most Wanted FOX 5.83 49 How I Met Your Mother CBS 5.34 50 Commander in Chief ABC 5.31

51 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 5.27 52 Wife Swap ABC 4.98 53 According to Jim (8 p.m.) ABC 4.96 54 Last Comic Standing (8 p.m.) NBC 4.95 55 “Chevrolet NBA Nation” (Thu.) ABC 4.94

Ghost Whisperer CBS 4.94 57 Boston Legal ABC 4.87 58 George Lopez (Wed.) ABC 4.84 59 Windfall (Fri.) NBC 4.83 60 “Chevrolet NBA Nation” (Sun.) ABC 4.77

61 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Fri.) ABC 4.70 62 War at Home FOX 4.65 63 Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 4.62 64 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 4.55 “Rush Hour 2” FOX 4.55

66 Wonderful World of Disney ABC 4.41 67 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 4.30 68 According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 4.24 69 Rodney ABC 4.22 70 “Alma Awards” ABC 4.20

71 Freddie ABC 4.14 Everwood WB 4.14 73 The Evidence ABC 4.07 74 King of the Hill FOX 4.02 Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 4.02

76 Less Than Perfect ABC 3.97 77 Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 3.96 78 Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 3.93 79 Barrera De Amor (Wed.) UNI 3.91 80 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 3.89

81 Hope & Faith (9:30 p.m.) ABC 3.84 82 It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia FOX 3.76 83 Barrera de Amor (Mon.) UNI 3.58 84 WWE Smackdown! UPN 3.56 85 Barrera de Amor (Thu.) UNI 3.50

86 George Lopez (Mon.) ABC 3.48 87 “The Animal” FOX 3.47 88 Lost ABC 3.42 89 Hope and Faith (9 p.m.) ABC 3.37 Barrera de Amor (Tue.) UNI 3.37

91 Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 3.28 92 Cantando Por Un Sueno UNI 3.03 93 Barrera de Amor (Fri.) UNI 3.00 94 Peregrina (Wed.) UNI 2.83 95 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 2.81

96 Peregrina (Mon.) UNI 2.79 97 Peregrina (Tue.) UNI 2.72 98 Cristina UNI 2.66 99 “NHL Stanley Cup Final” (Sat.) NBC 2.54 100 Blue Collar TV (8 p.m.) WB 2.53

101 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 2.52 102 Peregrina (Thu.) UNI 2.51 103 Aqui y Ahora (Thu.) UNI 2.47 104 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.41 105 Blue Collar TV (8:30 p.m.) WB 2.38

106 Reba (Fri.) WB 2.33 107 Peregrina (Fri.) UNI 2.29 108 Smallville WB 2.20 109 Reba (Sun., 7:30 p.m.) WB 2.10 “Gang of Roses” UPN 2.10

111 Casos Vida UNI 2.07 112 Chiquitibum UNI 2.01 113 Living With Fran WB 1.93 114 “Not UNI Presenta” UNI 1.92 115 Charmed (8 p.m.) WB 1.89

116 Reba (Sun., 7 p.m.) WB 1.84 117 Girlfriends UPN 1.83 118 Hora Pico UNI 1.82 Gilmore Girls WB 1.82 120 Half and Half UPN 1.81

121 All of Us UPN 1.79 122 One on One UPN 1.67 123 Pepper Dennis WB 1.65 124 Supernatural WB 1.63 125 Love Inc. UPN 1.59

126 Charmed (9 p.m.) WB 1.48 Twins WB 1.48 128 America’s Next Top Model 6 UPN 1.32 129 What I Like About You WB 1.31 130 Cuts UPN 1.26

131 Eve UPN 1.25 132 Casos Familia UNI 1.23 133 Tormenta (Fri.) TEL 1.13 Tormenta (Thu.) TEL 1.13 135 Tormenta (Wed.) TEL 1.11

136 Tormenta (Mon.) TEL 1.07 Veronica Mars UPN 1.07 Decisiones (Tue.) TEL 1.07 139 Tormenta (Tue.) TEL 1.06 140 Tierra de Pasiones (Thu.) TEL 1.04

141 Decisiones (Fri.) TEL 1.02 Tierra de Pasiones (Fri.) TEL 1.02 143 Corazon Partido (Tue.) TEL 1.00 144 One Tree Hill WB 0.99 145 Corazon Partido (Fri.) TEL 0.98

146 Tierra de Pasiones (Wed.) TEL 0.97 147 Tierra de Pasiones (Tue.) TEL 0.92 148 Corazon Partido (Thu.) TEL 0.88 149 Decisiones (Thu.) TEL 0.87 150 Corazon Partido (Wed.) TEL 0.85

151 Tierra de Pasiones (Mon.) TEL 0.84 152 Corazon Partido (Mon.) TEL 0.81 153 Cinemundo Premier TEL 0.76

154 Accion Extrema TEL 0.74 Decisiones (Mon.) TEL 0.74 156 Cinemundo del Sabado TEL 0.66

157 Decisiones (Wed.) TEL 0.65 Sin Fronteras TEL 0.65

159 Corriendo y Grabando TEL 0.32 160 Loteria TEL 0.25

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Network averages

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

*--* Network Last week Season to date CBS 8.18 12.26

NBC 7.33 9.48

FOX 5.99 9.80

ABC 5.81 10.42

UNI 3.08 3.72

WB 2.15 3.03

UPN 2.06 3.04

TEL 0.84 0.91

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