Thanks mainly to the star power of the Los Angeles Lakers, this year’s NBA Finals generated the highest television ratings for the league’s championship round since 2001.
The five-game Detroit-Los Angeles series averaged an 11.5 rating. The final game, which saw Detroit clinch the title, scored an average 13.8 rating. That’s the highest national NBA rating since Game 6 of the 2000 Finals between the Lakers and Indiana.
Last year’s six-game Finals between San Antonio and New Jersey generated an average 6.5 rating. This year’s Finals also drew a higher average rating than the Lakers’ last Finals appearance, in 2002 against New Jersey, which averaged a 10.2.
“There were great story lines with the Finals,” said ABC spokesman Mark Mandel. “It was good competition, and the nation likes a good David-and-Goliath story.”
Each Finals game ranked as the top prime-time program the night of its broadcast. The 11.5 average rating compares to a 2.4 average rating for ABC’s 18 regular-season games and a 4.6 average for its six pre-Finals playoff telecasts. It also exceeds the 9.5 rating the league and ABC projected for advertisers before the series began.
The average rating increased through each game of the Finals, growing from a 9.8 in Game 1.
