ABC earned a 10.6 overnight rating for NBA Finals Game 4 on Thursday night, which saw the Spurs hold a 19-point lead at halftime over the Heat en route to a 21-point blowout. That overnight is down 12% from a 12.0 rating for the same Game 4 matchup last year, and down 15% from 12.4 rating in '12 for Heat-Thunder Game 4, which aired on a Tuesday night. This year's Game 4 peaked at a 12.0 overnight from 11:00-11:15pm ET. The game delivered ABC a primetime win for the 41st consecutive night that the net has aired an NBA Finals game. San Antonio led all markets with a 47.4 local rating, while Miami-Ft. Lauderdale earned a 28.8 rating (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
PARADISE LOST? In Ft. Lauderdale, Ben Crandell notes virtually no members of the national media would "actually admit to rooting" for a Heat win Thursday night, which would have guaranteed a "return to the alluring embrace of South Beach" for Game 6. But FS1's Colleen Dominguez said, "I root for location. Absolutely. ... At the beginning of the season when everyone was saying this was going to be the Pacers' year, I almost cried. ... We all root for location." ESPN's Chris Broussard indicated that the NBA going back to a 2-2-1-1-1 format for the Finals "was unpopular, because the old format allowed for more time in Miami the last few years." Crandell notes media members from ESPN, Fox and TNT on Wednesday night got together at South Beach restaurant Prime 112 "for a long dinner that Dominguez said has become an NBA Finals tradition" (South Florida SUN-SENTINEL, 6/13).
