ABC third despite NBA lift

LOS ANGELES -- CBS was the most-watched network for the second consecutive week with four of the week’s six most-watched programs, while the opening two games of the NBA Finals on ABC drew their largest audiences since 2004, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

CBS averaged 7.24 million viewers for its prime-time programming between June 2 and Sunday. Its most-watched program was a rerun of the comedy “Two and a Half Men,” third overall with 9.81 million viewers. Although viewership for the second episode of “Million Dollar Password” dropped 9%, it still ranked fifth with 9.62 million viewers.

ABC’s coverage of the first two games of the NBA Finals finished 1-2 for the week. The Boston Celtics’ 108-102 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers in Sunday’s Game 2 was the week’s most-watched program, with 13.5 million viewers, the most-watched Game 2 since 2004, the last time the Lakers played in the finals.

The Celtics’ 98-88 victory in Game 1 was second with 13.38 million, the most-watched Game 1 since 2004. Finals viewership through two games is up 51% over the first two game’s of last year’s finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and San Antonio Spurs.

In spite of the strong showing, ABC was still third for the week.

Meanwhile, Fox Broadcasting was second for the week, averaging 6.51 million viewers, with the week’s two episodes of “So You Think You Can Dance,” a rerun of the medical drama “House” and the cooking competition series “Hell’s Kitchen” all finishing in the Top 10.

NBC was fourth, averaging 5.73 million viewers, while the CW was fifth as usual, averaging 1.82 million.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (June 2-8) 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 286 million potential viewers in the U.S. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* -- Program Network Viewers 1 NBA Finals: Game 2 (Sun.) ABC 13.50 2 NBA Finals: Game 1 (Thu.) ABC 13.38 3 Two and a Half Men CBS 9.81 -- 60 Minutes CBS 9.81 5 Million Dollar Password CBS 9.62 *--*

*--* 6 CSI (9 p.m.) CBS 9.61 7 So You Think You Can Dance (Wed.) FOX 9.56 8 House FOX 9.44 9 Hell’s Kitchen FOX 9.36 10 So You Think You Can Dance (Thu.) FOX 9.25 *--*

*--* 11 CSI: NY CBS 9.11 12 NCIS CBS 8.93 13 CSI: Miami CBS 8.91 14 Swingtown CBS 8.57 15 Criminal Minds CBS 8.27 *--*

*--* 16 CSI (8 p.m.) CBS 8.21 17 Rules of Engagement CBS 8.12 18 Cold Case CBS 8.08 19 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.99 20 48 Hours Mystery (Tue.) CBS 7.78 *--*

*--* 21 Without a Trace CBS 7.56 22 Price Is Right Primetime CBS 7.00 23 Bones FOX 6.91 24 Stanley Cup Finals: Game 6 (Wed.) NBC 6.78 25 Moment of Truth FOX 6.76 *--*

*--* 26 Numb3rs CBS 6.74 27 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 6.57 28 The Bachelorette ABC 6.46 29 Stanley Cup Finals: Game 5 (Mon.) NBC 6.25 30 Most Outrageous Moments (8:30 p.m. Sun.) NBC 6.22 *--*

*--* 31 How I Met Your Mother CBS 6.02 32 Supernanny ABC 5.99 33 Law & Order: SVU (10 p.m.) NBC 5.95 34 Law & Order: SVU (9 p.m.) NBC 5.78 35 “NBC Countdown” (Thu.) ABC 5.71 *--*

*--* 36 Most Outrageous Moments (8:30 p.m. Tue.) NBC 5.61 37 Ghost Whisperer (9 p.m. Sun.) CBS 5.59 38 The Big Bang Theory CBS 5.58 39 Ghost Whisperer CBS 5.38 40 Most Outrageous Moments (Tue., 8:30 p.m.) NBC 5.32 *--*

*--* 41 Fear Itself NBC 5.26 42 Men in Trees ABC 5.24 43 Family Guy FOX 5.15 44 American Dad FOX 5.08 45 Last Comic Standing 6 NBC 4.97 *--*

*--* 46 “NBA Countdown” (Sun.) ABC 4.96 47 Wife Swap ABC 4.94 48 Most Outrageous Moments (8 p.m. Sun.) NBC 4.92 -- Wonderful World of Disney ABC 4.92 50 20/20 ABC 4.89 *--*

*--* 51 48 Hours Mystery (Sat.) CBS 4.86 52 America’s Most Wanted FOX 4.83 53 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Wed.) UNI 4.81 54 “National Treasure” NBC 4.69 55 The Mole ABC 4.67 *--*

*--* 56 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Mon.) UNI 4.66 57 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Tue.) UNI 4.65 58 Fuego en la Sangre (Mon.) UNI 4.60 59 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.48 60 Fuego en la Sangre (Wed.) UNI 4.40 *--*

*--* 61 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Fri.) ABC 4.38 62 Fuego en la Sangre (Thu.) UNI 4.34 63 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Thu.) UNI 4.31 64 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 4.24 65 Most Outrageous Moments (7:30 p.m. Sun.) NBC 4.23 *--*

*--* 66 The Simpsons FOX 4.21 67 The Unit CBS 4.17 68 Most Outrageous Moments (7 p.m. Sun.) NBC 4.16 69 Friday Night Smackdown! CW 4.08 70 Most Outrageous Moments (8:30 p.m. Fri.) NBC 4.06 *--*

*--* 71 Fuego en aa Sangre (Fri.) UNI 4.00 72 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 3.98 73 Fuego en la Sangre (Tue.) UNI 3.97 74 According to Jim (8 p.m. Tue.) ABC 3.90 -- Al Diablo con los Guapos (Fri.) UNI 3.90 *--*

*--* 76 King of the Hill FOX 3.84 77 According to Jim (8:30 p.m. Tue.) ABC 3.80 78 Most Outrageous Moments (8 p.m. Fri.) NBC 3.66 *--*

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 7.24 9.86

FOX 6.51 10.57

ABC 6.13 8.67

NBC 5.73 7.59

UNI 3.19 3.52

CW 1.82 2.42 *--*