ESPN’s Celtics-Heat Opener Up From Mavericks-Thunder Last Year

ESPN earned a 6.6 overnight Nielsen rating for last night’s Celtics-Heat NBA Eastern Conference Finals Game One, up 25% from the Mavericks-Thunder Western Conference Finals opener on the net last year. Meanwhile, ABC earned a 5.5 overnight for the Celtics’ Eastern Conference Semifinals Game Seven win over the 76ers on Saturday night. That figure is up 12% from a 4.9 overnight for the comparable Thunder-Grizzlies Game Seven last year, which aired on a Sunday afternoon.

TNT finished with a 4.8 fast-national U.S. rating and 7.8 million viewers for Game One of the Thunder-Spurs Western Conference Finals on Sunday night. Those figures mark the highest-rated and most-viewed Western Conference Finals opener ever on the net, but are down 23% and 30%, respectively, from a 6.2 rating and 11.1 million viewers for the net’s Heat-Bulls opener last year.