Nielsen Ratings Weekly Top 20: NBA Finals Lead Summer Fare

June 10th, 2008 by Robert Seidman

NBA Finals on ABC

While they’re definitely not Michael Jordan style numbers, the NBA finals still took the top two spots in this week’s total viewing rankings. Both game one and two performed very similarly at around 13.5 million viewers. I’d like to see seven games and 20 million viewers for games six and seven, but if it doesn’t happen like that, at least there is a free lunch in it for me. Bill G. and I have a little wager on the average for the series I took under 15 million, he took the over. You can weigh in too (we’re not buying you lunch though).

CBS put a whopping 13 shows on this list but only six out of those thirteen shows were among the top 25 shows among the 18-49 year old demographic. Which is one reason why CBS will tell the PTC to kiss its butt when it comes to Swingtown. The Parents Television Council wants the show off the air and is encouraging local affiliates not to air it. But that’s not going to happen. It was the #14 show overall and the #9 show in the 18-49 demographic.

FOX only had four shows on this list, but all four of them were top-ten performers both overall and in the 18-49 demographic. The only two shows ABC placed on the list were the NBA final games between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics.

NBC’s only entry on the list was the Sunday night version of Dateline.

Nielsen Top Twenty Shows by viewers for the week ending 06/08/08:

Rank	Shows	Net	HH RATING (LIVE+SD)	HH SHARE (LIVE+SD)	# OF HOMES (LIVE+SD) (000)	# Viewers (LIVE+SD) (000)	18-49 Rank
1	NBA FINALS ON ABC-GM 2(S)	ABC	8.5	15	9,543	13,499	1
2	NBA FINALS ON ABC-GM 1(S)	ABC	8.7	16	9,813	13,384	2
3	TWO AND A HALF MEN (R )	CBS	6.4	10	7,268	9,811	6
4	60 MINUTES (R )	CBS	6.5	13	7,337	9,809
5	MILLION DOLLAR PASSWORD	CBS	6.3	11	7,050	9,624	23
6	CSI (R )	CBS	6.5	11	7,332	9,613	15
7	SO YOU THINK CN DANCE-WED	FOX	6.0	10	6,765	9,564	4
8	HOUSE-MON 9P (R )	FOX	6.0	9	6,785	9,442	7
9	HELL’S KITCHEN	FOX	5.6	9	6,368	9,363	3
10	SO YOU THINK CN DANCE-THU	FOX	5.6	10	6,332	9,250	5
11	CSI: NY (R )	CBS	6.2	11	7,019	9,114	20
12	NCIS (R )	CBS	6.0	10	6,818	8,927
13	CSI: MIAMI (R )	CBS	6.1	10	6,838	8,911	13
14	SWINGTOWN	CBS	5.9	10	6,705	8,568	9
15	CRIMINAL MINDS (R )	CBS	5.5	9	6,253	8,271
16	CSI - THU 8P SPECIAL(S)(R )	CBS	5.5	10	6,240	8,211
17	RULES OF ENGAGEMENT (R )	CBS	5.3	8	5,922	8,118
18	COLD CASE (R )	CBS	5.5	9	6,181	8,078
19	DATELINE SUN 9PM	NBC	5.5	9	6,177	7,992	24
20	48 HOURS MYSTERY TUESDAY	CBS	5.4	9	6,071	7,777