The NBA Finals on ABC are averaging 17.37 million viewers through four games, down 8% from 18.89 million for Warriors-Cavaliers in '15, but up 16% from 14.93 million in '14 for Spurs-Heat. That makes Warriors-Cavs the second most-watched Finals ever on ABC. Meanwhile, Friday night's Cavs-Warriors Game 5 averaged 16.44 million viewers, peaking at 20.4 million from 11:30pm-12:00am ET. Warriors-Cavs Game 4 last year earned 19.84 million viewers on a Thursday, while Spurs-Heat in '14 averaged 14.96 million, also on a Thursday. ABC is projected to win the night in primetime for the 52nd consecutive time in which it airs a Finals game. Meanwhile, Game 4 on Friday delivered 1.03 million unique viewers on WatchESPN, a record number for the streaming platform (Josh Carpenter, Assistant Editor). SI.com's Richard Deitsch noted ESPN and ABC execs "have to be disappointed with the viewership" of this year's NBA Finals (SI.com, 6/12).
FROM LONG RANGE: In Cleveland, Matt Goul noted ESPN's pregame coverage on Friday included a graphic "in the lower left corner" of the screen while Warriors G Stephen Curry warmed up. The graphic "tracked Curry's shooting in the oh-so-important warm-up session almost 90 minutes before Game 4." ESPN tracked "Curry's shooting from the paint, well beyond the 3-point line and overall" (CLEVELAND.com, 6/11).
