NBA Finals hot for ABC as premieres get cold shoulder

No new hits have emerged three weeks into television’s summer season, with viewers preferring reruns and sports to three series premieres last week, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

ABC’s coverage of the Miami Heat’s 101-100 overtime victory over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Sunday was the most-watched program between June 12 and Sunday, averaging 14.32 million viewers.

Through five games, viewership for the NBA Finals is up 12% nationally over last year’s series between the Detroit Pistons and San Antonio Spurs.

Sunday’s premiere of the NBC competition series “Treasure Hunters” was third in its 8-10 p.m. period with 6.87 million viewers, and 25th for the week.

The premiere of the ABC dating series “How to Get the Guy” was second in its 10-11 p.m. slot June 12 with 4.25 million viewers, 59th for the week. CBS’ unscripted series “Tuesday Night Book Club” was third from 10 to 11 p.m. June 13 with 5.07 million viewers, 47th for the week.

Viewership for the second episode of the NBC drama “Windfall” dropped 14% from its premiere to 7.79 million, again finishing third in its time period behind ABC’s NBA Finals telecast (12.09 million viewers) and a rerun of “Without a Trace” on CBS (10.59 million).

The second-season premiere of the TNT police drama “The Closer” was the week’s most-watched cable program with 8.28 million viewers, a record for a basic cable scripted series. It would have tied for 16th among the programs on the six major broadcast networks.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (June 12-18) 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.

*--* 1 “NBA Finals” (Sun.) ABC 14.32 2 CSI: Miami CBS 13.49 3 “NBA Finals” (Tue.) ABC 12.25 4 “NBA Finals” (Thu.) ABC 11.56 5 CSI CBS 11.17

6 Without a Trace CBS 10.59 7 So You Think You Can Dance (Wed.) FOX 9.94 8 Two and a Half Men CBS 9.87 9 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 9.71 10 “What Women Want” CBS 9.56

11 NCIS CBS 9.19 12 60 Minutes CBS 9.11 13 Last Comic Standing 4 NBC 9.01 14 Dateline: NBC (Thu.) NBC 8.97 15 Cold Case CBS 8.42

16 “AFI 100 Years 100 Cheers” CBS 8.28 17 Old Christine CBS 8.18 18 So You Think You Can Dance (Thu.) FOX 8.16 19 House (9 p.m.) FOX 7.89 20 Windfall (Thu.) NBC 7.79

21 Hell’s Kitchen (9 p.m.) FOX 7.54 22 20/20 ABC 7.47 23 The Unit CBS 7.45 24 Numb3rs CBS 7.18 25 “Treasure Hunters” NBC 6.87

26 Fear Factor NBC 6.82 27 48 Hours Mystery CBS 6.73 28 King of Queens CBS 6.64 29 Gameshow Marathon CBS 6.63 Supernanny ABC 6.63

31 Close to Home CBS 6.56 32 How I Met Your Mother CBS 6.45 33 House (8 p.m.) FOX 6.25 34 Wife Swap ABC 6.11 35 The Simpsons (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.04

36 Hell’s Kitchen (8 p.m.) FOX 5.89 37 Family Guy FOX 5.84 38 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Fri.) ABC 5.78 39 Commander in Chief ABC 5.53 40 My Name Is Earl NBC 5.46

41 Law & Order: SVU (Fri.) NBC 5.35 42 America’s Most Wanted FOX 5.30 43 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 5.25 44 The Simpsons (8 p.m.) FOX 5.22 45 Crimetime Saturday CBS 5.20

46 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 5.10 47 Tuesday Night Book Club CBS 5.07 48 Ghost Whisperer CBS 5.00 49 Office NBC 4.98 50 Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 4.90

51 Wonderful World of Disney ABC 4.87 52 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 4.81 53 “NBA Nation” (Sun.) ABC 4.69 54 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.63 55 According to Jim ABC 4.62

56 “NBA Nation” (Tue.) ABC 4.53 57 Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 4.51 58 George Lopez ABC 4.40 59 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Thu.) ABC 4.39 60 Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 4.37

61 That ‘70s Show (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.33 62 How to Get the Guy ABC 4.25 63 Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 4.21 64 “NBA Nation” (Thu.) ABC 4.14 Barrera de Amor (Thu.) UNI 4.14

66 Freddie ABC 4.05 67 The Evidence ABC 4.02 68 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 3.97 69 Windfall (Sun.) NBC 3.90 70 Hope & Faith (9 p.m.) ABC 3.89

Barrera de Amor (Wed.) UNI 3.89 72 “NHL Stanley Cup Final” (Wed.) NBC 3.85 Barrera de Amor (Mon.) UNI 3.85 74 Barrera de Amor (Tue.) UNI 3.83 75 Hope & Faith (9:30 p.m.) ABC 3.77

76 Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 3.67 77 It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Sun.) FOX 3.54 78 Windfall (Fri.) NBC 3.47 79 Cristina UNI 3.46 80 Lost ABC 3.42

81 Barrera de Amor (Fri.) UNI 3.31 82 WWE Smackdown! UPN 3.30 83 King of the Hill FOX 3.26 84 That ‘70s Show (8 p.m.) FOX 3.25 85 Peregrina (Thu.) UNI 3.13

“NHL Stanley Cup Final” (Mon.) NBC 3.13 87 Peregrina (Wed.) UNI 3.12 88 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.06 89 Peregrina (Tue.) UNI 2.94 90 “NHL Stanley Cup Final” (Sat.) NBC 2.92

91 Peregrina (Fri.) UNI 2.80 92 Peregrina (Mon.) UNI 2.79 93 Aqui y Ahora (Thu.) UNI 2.75 94 Malcolm in the Middle FOX 2.68 95 “Black Knight” UPN 2.63

96 Everybody Hates Chris UPN 2.58 97 Blue Collar TV (8:30 p.m.) WB 2.47 98 All of Us UPN 2.46 99 Blue Collar (8 p.m.) WB 2.45 100 Que Madre Tan Padre UNI 2.43

101 Cantando por un Sueno UNI 2.42 102 24 (8 p.m.) FOX 2.38 103 Casos Vida UNI 2.37 104 24 (9 p.m.) FOX 2.36 105 Reba (Sun., 7:30 p.m.) WB 2.26

106 Girlfriends UPN 2.17 107 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.13 108 Half and Half UPN 2.10 109 One on One UPN 2.09 110 Reba (Fri.) WB 2.04

111 7th Heaven (9 p.m.) WB 1.94 112 Smallville WB 1.91 113 Vecinos UNI 1.90 114 Reba (Sun., 7 p.m.) WB 1.86 115 7th Heaven (8 p.m.) WB 1.85

116 Gilmore Girls WB 1.73 Charmed (8 p.m.) WB 1.73 118 Living With Fran WB 1.71 119 Charmed (9 p.m.) WB 1.70 120 Hora Pico UNI 1.66

121 Supernatural WB 1.64 122 Love Inc. UPN 1.60 123 America’s Next Top Model 6 UPN 1.57 124 Pepper Dennis WB 1.55 What I Like About You WB 1.55

126 Twins WB 1.33 127 Tormenta (Mon.) TEL 1.29 One Tree Hill WB 1.29 129 Cuts UPN 1.26 130 Eve UPN 1.24

131 Decisiones (Tue.) TEL 1.19 Corazon Partido TEL 1.19 133 Casos Familia UNI 1.17 Veronica Mars UPN 1.17 135 Tierra de Pasiones (Mon.) TEL 1.09

136 Decisiones (Mon.) TEL 1.08 137 Tormenta (Wed.) TEL 1.05 Tormenta (Tue.) TEL 1.05 139 Amores de Mercado (Wed.) TEL 1.01 Tierra de Pasiones (Tue.) TEL 1.01

141 Corazon Partido (Mon.) TEL 0.99 142 Tierra de Pasiones (Thu.) TEL 0.95 143 Tormenta (Thu.) TEL 0.94 144 Cinemundo Premier TEL 0.90 Tormenta (Fri.) TEL 0.90

146 Amores de Mercado (Thu.) TEL 0.89 Tierra de Pasiones (Wed.) TEL 0.89 148 Decisiones (Fri.) TEL 0.85 149 Decisiones (Thu.) TEL 0.83 150 Tierra de Pasiones (Fri.) TEL 0.82

151 Amores de Mercado (Fri.) TEL 0.69 152 Cinemundo del Sabado TEL 0.62 153 Accion Extrema TEL 0.51 154 Sin Fronteras TEL 0.39 155 Loteria TEL 0.37

156 Corriendo y Grabando TEL 0.33 157 Just for Laughs TEL 0.30

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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 8.08 12.16

ABC 6.77 10.33

FOX 5.82 9.70

NBC 5.28 9.37

UNI 3.19 3.70

UPN 2.23 3.02

WB 1.78 3.00

TEL 0.86 0.91

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