TV Ratings story for the week of May 30 — June 5 Wed., June 8, 2022

The 17th season premiere of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” was the most popular entertainment program in the first full week of television’s summer season, averaging 6.328 million viewers, finishing fourth overall.

The only other non-sports prime-time program to average more than 4 million viewers between May 30 and Sunday was an edition of the CBS news magazine “60 Minutes” with three previously broadcast segments that were updated which averaged 6.748 million viewers, third for the week, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen Tuesday.

ABC’s coverage of the Golden State Warriors’ 107-88 victory in Game 2 on the NBA Finals Sunday was first for the week, averaging 11.911 million viewers. Second place went to Boston’s 120-108 victory in Game 1 Thursday which averaged 11.401 million.

Viewership for the first two games of ABC’s coverage of the NBA Finals were the lowest when held during their customary time since 2007, but 30% higher than last year when they were held in July.

The two games between the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors averaged 11.656 million viewers. The first two games of the 2021 finals between the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns averaged 8.97 million viewers.

In the finals’ most recent previous time they were played in their customary June time frame, the first two games between the Warriors and Toronto Raptors in 2019 averaged 13.635 million viewers.

The two NBA Finals games lifted ABC to the top of the network race, averaging 4.39 million viewers. Its top rated non-basketball program was the news magazine “20/20,” 13th for the week averaging 3.436 million, the most among Friday’s programs.

CBS finished second, averaging 3.06 million, and NBC third, averaging 2.53 million.

Fox averaged 1.51 million viewers for its 15 hours, 37 minutes of prime-time programming, led by “MasterChef,” which was 54th for the week averaging 2.252 million viewers.

The CW averaged 430,000 viewers. Its biggest draw was the crime drama “Walker,” which averaged 866,000 viewers, 118th among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.

The premiere of NBC’s dance challenge series “Dancing with Myself,” averaged 2.659 million viewers following “America’s Got Talent,” to finish 37th for the week. The week’s other premiere, The CW mystery “Tom Swift” averaged 440,000 viewers, 195th among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.

The top 20 prime-time programs consisted of two NBA Finals games, the postgame show for Game 2 of the finals and pregame show for Game 1; three other ABC programs, “20/20,” the concert honoring Queen Elizabeth II, “Party at the Palace” and the Thursday edition of “Jimmy Kimmel Live: Game Night”; 11 CBS programs — seven scripted series episodes, two game shows, “Let’s Make a Deal Primetime” and “The Price is Right at Night,” “60 Minutes” and the CBS News special, “Her Majesty The Queen: A Gayle King Special”; and two NBC entertainment programs, “America’s Got Talent” and a rerun of “Chicago Fire.”

Three editions of the Fox News Channel political talk show “Tucker Carlson Tonight” were the only prime-time cable programs to average more than 3 million viewers, topped by the Thursday edition, which averaged 3.056 million, 22nd overall.

The end of NBA playoff coverage on cable gave Fox News Channel its first weekly victory since the week of April 25-May 1, averaging 1.985 million viewers. ESPN was second, averaging 1.522 million. TNT was the only other cable network to average more than 1 million viewers for its prime-time programming, averaging 1.118 million viewers.

The cable top 20 consisted of 13 Fox News Channel political talk shows — five broadcasts of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” and four each of “Hannity” and “The Ingraham Angle”; three NHL Eastern Conference Finals games on ESPN; two NHL Western Conference Finals games on TNT; the TLC dating series “90 Day Fiance” and the Hallmark Channel movie, “Hidden Gems.”

The fourth season of the science fiction horror drama series “Stranger Things” was Netflix’s most-streamed program for the second consecutive week, with viewers spending 335.01 million hours watching the seven episodes in their first full week of release, 16.8% more than the 286.79 million hours the previous week when they were available for three days, according to figures released by the streaming service.