NBA Playoffs Put 9 Games in Sports TV Ratings Top 20
With the NBA conference semi-finals ending and the conference finals beginning, the NBA Playoffs dominated the sports show rankings for the week of May 12-18, 2008 with the LeBron/Celtics game 7 topping the list with an audience of 8.697 million and 9* of the top 20 shows altogether.
Big Brown’s win in the Preakness was only enough to move it to #2 on the list with an audience of 7.939 million, just over half of the Kentucky Derby audience.
Top Sports Shows for the Week of May 12-18, 2008:
| RANK | PROGRAMS | Network | Persons Live+SD (000) | HH Rating Live+SD |
| 1 | NBA CLEVELAND/BOSTON SUN | ABC | 8,697 | 5.7 |
| 2 | PREAKNESS 5/17 | NBC | 7,939 | 5.5 |
| 3 | NBA (JAZZ/LAKERS) | TNT | 5,453 | 3.6 |
| 4 | NBA (CAVALIERS/CELTICS) | TNT | 5,410 | 3.6 |
| 5 | NBA (CELTICS/CAVALIERS) | ESPN | 4,915 | 3.3 |
| 6 | NBA (CELTICS/CAVALIERS) | TNT | 4,781 | 3.3 |
| 7 | WWE RAW | USA | 4,705 | 2.9 |
| 8 | NBA (LAKERS/JAZZ) | ESPN | 4,642 | 3.2 |
| 9 | NBA (SPURS/HORNETS) | TNT | 4,536 | 3.1 |
| 10 | NBA (HORNETS/SPURS) | ESPN | 4,372 | 3.0 |
| 11 | WWE RAW | USA | 4,313 | 2.7 |
| 12 | PREAKNESS PRE 5/17 | NBC | 4,305 | 3.2 |
| 13 | NASCAR SPRINT CUP RACING | SPD | 4,182 | 2.5 |
| 14 | FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN | CW | 4,177 | 2.4 |
| 15 | MLB SUN NIGHT (METS/YANKEES) | ESPN | 3,421 | 2.3 |
| 16 | NBA PLAYOFFS (MAGIC/PISTONS) | TNT | 2,789 | 2.0 |
| 17 | GMC NBA-SUN 1 PLAYOFFS* | ABC | 2,628 | 1.8 |
| 18 | FOX SAT BASEBALL (VARIOUS) | FOX | 2,554 | 1.8 |
| 19 | NHL PHILADELPHIA/PITTSBURGH-SUN | NBC | 2,507 | 1.4 |
| 20 | AT&T CLASSIC-SU 5/18 | CBS | 2,369 | 1.7 |
The NASCAR Sprint Cup race this week was on Speed Network, so its 4.182 million viewers was quite impressive.
The faux wrestling of WWE Raw and Friday Night Smackdown landed at #7, #11 and #14 respectively.
The top NHL Playoff game of the week, Philadelphia/Pittsburgh, came in at #19 with 2.5 million viewers.
A Tigerless AT&T Classic final round snuck into the list at #20 with 2.369 million viewers.
* The GMC NBA Sun 1 Playoffs show at #17 was a pregame show, so I’m not counting it as an “NBA game”.
Our Sports Ratings combine the top Broadcast sports shows and any sports shows that appeared in the top 40 cable programs. Cable sports shows might have enough audience to reach our top 20 list and yet not be included if they don’t make the cable top 40.
Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2008 Nielsen Media Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
