ABC is averaging 19.22 million viewers per game for the Warriors-Cavaliers series heading into tonight's Game 6, keeping the matchup on pace to be the most-viewed NBA Finals since NBC averaged 29.04 million viewers for Michael Jordan's final title with the Bulls in '98. The most-recent NBA Finals to average around 19 million viewers was the five-game Lakers-76ers series in '01. Warriors-Cavaliers is easily on pace to be ABC's top NBA Finals since ESPN acquired rights to the league prior to the '02-03 season. Warriors-Cavaliers viewership also is up 25% from the average of 15.37 million viewers for the five-game Spurs-Heat series last year. On Sunday, Game 5 averaged 20.51 million viewers, marking the best NBA Finals Game 5 since the series-clinching Pistons-Lakers matchup in '04 drew 21.84 million viewers. Warriors-Cavaliers Game 5 is up 15% from Spurs-Heat last year (17.86 million viewers). Sunday night's game also drew 741,600 unique users on the WatchESPN app, which is the second-best NBA game ever on the platform (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
20-SOMETHING: In N.Y., Richard Sandomir notes 20 million viewers "once routinely watched" NBA Finals games, but that was when Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton were in the White House. With the Warriors holding a 3-2 series lead, "the 20 million threshold is well within reach again." The reasons for the above-average viewership "are not elusive: LeBron James and Stephen Curry’s star power, buttressed by the saga of James’s return to Cleveland; a Cavaliers franchise seeking the city’s first major sports championship since 1964; the Warriors seeking a title for the first time in 40 years; and competitive, sometimes exhausting games." ESPN Senior VP/Global Research & Analytics Artie Bulgrin attributed the rise in audience to "James and the league’s rising popularity," the "passion" of the Bay Area and Cleveland-Akron markets and social media. Bulgrin said, "In tight games, word of mouth tells people who aren’t watching that they should. We determined that 70 percent of all social TV tweets during Game 3 were about Game 3.” ESPN play-by-play announcer Mike Breen said, "It happens when a team hasn’t been there for a long time. It’s a newness or freshness that only happens once" (N.Y. TIMES, 6/16).
SECRET SAUCE: YAHOO SPORTS' Eric Freeman wrote the Warriors-Cavaliers matchup has "been an unqualified success" for the NBA and ESPN. The "lesson here is perhaps that small-market teams" like the Spurs "don't draw big ratings for reasons beyond their location." While market size "surely matters to ratings, this series is in line to beat out two Celtics-Lakers series in the past decade, both of which featured Kobe Bryant and several other nationally known stars" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 6/15).
