PRIME-TIME TV RANKINGS

Viewership for the NBA Finals was down slightly from last year, but last week’s three games outdistanced the competition and gave ABC its first weekly victory in the prime-time ratings race since September.

The Lakers’ four-games-to-one victory over the Orlando Magic averaged 14.35 million viewers, compared with 14.94 million for the six games of last year’s finals between the Lakers and the Boston Celtics, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

The Lakers’ 99-91 overtime victory in Game 4 last Thursday was the most-watched prime-time program for the week, averaging 15.96 million viewers. Game 3 last Tuesday averaged 14.2 million viewers, while Game 5 Sunday averaged 14.17 million.

The most-watched non-basketball programming of the week was Tuesday’s rerun of the CBS drama “The Mentalist,” which was fifth overall with 11.62 million viewers.

ABC averaged 7.27 million viewers for its prime-time programming for the week. It was the network’s first victory since the week of Sept. 22-28, the opening week of the official TV season, when ABC’s programming included five hours of “Dancing With the Stars.”

NBC also had a sports success as Game 7 of hockey’s Stanley Cup finals finished 17th for the week, averaging 7.99 million viewers. That was the largest audience for a National Hockey League game on U.S. television since May 10, 1973, when the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Chicago Blackhawks to win the Stanley Cup.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (June 8-14) 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 Basketball: NBA Finals Game 4 ABC 15.96 2 Basketball: NBA Finals Game 3 ABC 14.20 3 Basketball: NBA Finals Game 5 ABC 14.17 4 NBA Trophy Presentation ABC 13.47 5 The Mentalist (Tue.) CBS 11.62 *--*

*--* 6 NCIS CBS 11.05 7 Two and a Half Men CBS 9.52 8 The Mentalist CBS 8.94 9 48 Hours Mystery (Tue.) CBS 8.85 10 CSI CBS 8.74 *--*

*--* 11 So You Think You Can Dance FOX 8.69 12 So You Think You Can Dance (results) FOX 8.65 13 Wipeout ABC 8.49 14 Criminal Minds CBS 8.34 15 CSI: Miami CBS 8.21 *--*

*--* 16 CSI: NY CBS 8.02 17 Hockey: Stanley Cup Final Game 7 NBC 7.99 18 The Big Bang Theory (9:30 p.m.) CBS 7.81 19 60 Minutes CBS 7.64 20 The Bachelorette ABC 7.19 *--*

*--* 21 Dateline NBC (Mon.) NBC 6.81 22 Million Dollar Password CBS 6.60 23 Cold Case CBS 6.50 24 The Big Bang Theory CBS 6.49 25 Without a Trace CBS 6.49 *--*

*--* 26 House FOX 5.93 27 Hockey: Stanley Cup Final Game 6 NBC 5.81 28 How I Met Your Mother CBS 5.80 29 Bones FOX 5.65 30 Flashpoint CBS 5.58 *--*

*--* 31 Numb3rs CBS 5.55 32 Bones (Mon.) FOX 5.49 33 Ghost Whisperer CBS 5.39 34 Manana Para Siempre (Mon.) UNI 5.34 35 I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! (Mon.) NBC 5.26 *--*

*--* 36 I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! (Thu.) NBC 5.17 37 Manana Para Siempre (Thu.) UNI 5.14 38 Manana Para Siempre (Wed.) UNI 5.06 39 48 Hours Mystery CBS 5.05 40 NHL Pre-game (Fri.) NBC 5.00 *--*

*--* 41 Manana Para Siempre (Tue.) UNI 4.93 42 NBA pre-game (Thu.) ABC 4.88 43 Law & Order NBC 4.85 44 The New Adventures of Old Christine (8:30 p.m. Thu.) CBS 4.84 45 Dateline (Sun.) NBC 4.83 *--*

*--* 46 I’m a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here! (Wed.) NBC 4.76 47 NBA pre-game (Tue.) ABC 4.71 48 Mental FOX 4.70 49 Here Come the Newlyweds ABC 4.60 50 The New Adventures of Old Christine (8 p.m. Thu.) CBS 4.59 *--*

*--* 51 The Listener NBC 4.44 52 The Unusuals ABC 4.40 53 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 4.36 54 Cuidado con El Angel (Mon.) UNI 4.35 55 Manana Para Siempre (Fri.) UNI 4.29 *--*

*--* 56 Family Guy FOX 4.22 57 America’s Most Wanted: America Fights Back FOX 4.19 58 NHL Pre-game (Tue). NBC 4.17 59 Cuidado con El Angel (Wed.) UNI 3.99 60 Cuidado con El Angel (Thu.) UNI 3.98 *--*

*--* 61 Movie: “10.5: Apocalypse” NBC 3.91 62 The Simpsons FOX 3.91 63 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 3.91 64 House (Tue.) FOX 3.91 65 The New Adventures of Old Christine CBS 3.91 *--*

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 ABC 7.27 8.21

CBS 6.94 10.77

FOX 5.05 8.85

NBC 5.01 7.16

UNI 3.34 3.86 *--*