Friday night's NBA Finals Game 4 on ABC averaged 19.01 million viewers, up 15% from 16.57 million viewers for last year’s Game 4, which also aired on a Friday night. However, Friday night's contest was down from 19.84 million viewers for Game 4 two years ago, which aired on a Thursday night. Friday's Warriors-Cavaliers matchup peaked with 22.45 million viewers from 11:00-11:30pm ET. The NBA Finals won the night across all nets for the 59th consecutive time. Heading into tonight's Game 5, the Finals are averaging 19.38 million viewers, which keeps the series on pace for the most-viewed NBA Finals since '98 (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
KEEP IT GOING: In San Jose, Chuck Barney wrote no ESPN execs are "shedding tears" over the Cavs' Game 4 victory, "giving ABC a chance to reap another round of hefty ratings." Fans have "not grown weary of watching the Warriors and Cavaliers go at it." While Warriors fans want the series to end tonight at Oracle Arena, ESPN execs "surely wouldn’t mind seeing the party continue," as last year’s Game 7 attracted an "enormous audience" of 31 million viewers (MERCURYNEWS.com, 6/10). In Boston, Gary Washburn wrote, "For those thinking the Finals have lacked much intrigue because of the Warriors’ dominance, the television ratings say different." The question for the NBA is "whether playoff interest will decrease over the next few years if the Warriors continue to dominate" (BOSTON GLOBE, 6/11).
CLOSER LOOK: THE RINGER's Haley O'Shaughnessy noted of the 52 people listed as NBA analysts on either ESPN, TNT or RSNs this season, "only three were women" -- ESPN's Doris Burke, FS Southeast Hornets analyst Stephanie Ready and FS Arizona Suns analyst Ann Meyers Drysdale. There are "no female play-by-play announcers." On radio, ESPN's Kara Lawson is the "only woman in either role." More than "half of the league’s sideline reporters, 27 of 48, are female." It is an "entry to the field" and some "use it to show their on-air capabilities, while others refuse." Sideline reporting is, "without question, an on-ramp." O'Shaughnessy: "But will it lead anywhere?" Burke said, "You have people in the business, women who will say, ‘I’m not doing sideline because I don’t want to get pigeonholed over there.'" Golden State Warriors sideline reporter Rosalyn Gold-Onwude said, "It’s natural to put women in reporter roles. It’s just kind of a space that’s been reserved for them" (THERINGER.com, 6/9).
