TNT finished with 15.9 million viewers for the Warriors’ Game 7 win over the Thunder in the Western Conference Finals on Monday night, marking the best NBA audience ever on cable TV, as well as TNT’s best audience in its 28-year history. Warriors-Thunder Game 7 stands as the most-viewed non-Finals game for the NBA on broadcast or cable since NBC's broadcast of Lakers-Kings WCF Game 7 in ’02 (23.8 million viewers). The last NBA conference finals Game 7 -- Heat-Pacers in ’13 -- drew 11.5 million viewers on TNT on a Monday night (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor). CNN MONEY's Frank Pallotta noted Game 7 "brought in big viewership in both the Bay Area and Oklahoma City where roughly 30% of the homes were watching the game." The game and the postgame version of "Inside the NBA" were the "two top rated programs of the night across both cable and broadcast TV" (MONEY.CNN.com, 5/31).
ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN: CBS Sports Network's Adam Schein sarcastically said the Stanley Cup Final began Monday night “according to multiple reports." Schein: "Did they? I don't know. Gary Bettman really rolled with Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final ... going up against Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals. Apparently the Penguins won. I don't know. I didn't watch it. Based upon the ratings, you didn't either." He added, "How about a plan? Like, I don't know, starting it (Tuesday night) when there's no basketball and you can own it. Just like I begged you, start the playoffs when the NBA regular season was done, as opposed to when the Warriors are going up for 73 and Kobe Bryant was going to retire. ... Apparently (Sidney) Crosby did something, or maybe he didn't. Nobody knows because nobody saw it!” (“Time to Schein,” CBSSN, 5/31).
