Celtics Championship Win Tops At 16.9 Million Viewers
To no one’s surprise the Celtic’s NBA Championship win in Game 6 of the NBA Finals was the top sports show of the week of June 16-22, 2008 with viewership of 16.879 million viewers. Add in it’s pre and post game shows and it was 3 of the top 6 sports shows for the week.
Because of the US Open playoff on Monday we get a single week comparison of TV viewership for golf with Tiger Woods and without Tiger Woods.
Monday US Open Playoff featuring Tiger Woods front 9 on ESPN [4.762m viewers], back 9 on NBC [9.179m viewers]. These numbers are for a Monday afternoon.
Travelers Championship Saturday [1.457m] and Sunday [2.238m].
Of course it’s not apples to apples, the US Open is one of the 4 majors, but Tiger being lost for the rest of the 2008 season spells ratings Armageddon for golf this year.
Top Sports Shows for the Week of June 16-22, 2008:
| RANK | PROGRAMS | Network | Persons Live+SD (000) | HH Rating Live+SD |
| 1 | NBA FINALS LAKERS AT BOSTON GM 6 6/17 | ABC | 16,879 | 10.7 |
| 2 | NBA TROPHY PRESENTATION 6/17 | ABC | 13,464 | 8.5 |
| 3 | US OPEN GOLF-MON 6/16 | NBC | 9,179 | 6.7 |
| 4 | OLYMPIC TRIALS WOMENS GYMNASTICS SUN 7PM | NBC | 6,302 | 3.9 |
| 5 | SPRINT CUP RACING/SONOMA | TNT | 6,015 | 3.7 |
| 6 | GMC NBA COUNTDOWN-GM 6 6/17 | ABC | 5,529 | 3.8 |
| 7 | WWE RAW | USA | 5,214 | 3.3 |
| 8 | WWE RAW | USA | 5,204 | 3.3 |
| 9 | U.S. OPEN GOLF PLAYOFF | ESPN | 4,762 | 3.6 |
| 10 | OLYMPIC TRIALS WOMENS GYMNASTICS 6/21 8P | NBC | 4,568 | 2.9 |
| 11 | FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN | CW | 3,974 | 2.2 |
| 12 | OLYMPIC TRIALS DIVING 6/22 3P | NBC | 3,251 | 2.2 |
| 13 | FOX SAT BASEBALL STL AT BOS/CLE AT LA DGRS | FOX | 2,576 | 1.7 |
| 14 | OLYMPIC TRIALS MENS GYMNASTICS 6/21 4:30 | NBC | 2,458 | 1.6 |
| 15 | TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIP-SU 6/22 | CBS | 2,238 | 1.6 |
| 16 | UEFA EURO 2008 NETHERLANDS VS RUSSIA 6/21 | ABC | 1,838 | 1.2 |
| 17 | ETHANOL INDYCAR 250-IOWA 6/22 | ABC | 1,690 | 1.1 |
| 18 | OLYMPIC TRIALS DIVING 6/21 3:30 | NBC | 1,504 | 1.1 |
| 19 | TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIP-SA 6/21 | CBS | 1,457 | 1.1 |
| 20 | FOX SATURDAY BASEBALL PRE | FOX | 1,324 | 0.8 |
The weekly NASCAR Sprint Cup race from Sonoma reliably placed at #5 with 6.0 million viewers.
The gymnastics Olympic Trials on Sunday night finished #4 and drew 6.3 million.
As usual, WWE Raw put 2 episodes in the top 20, this week at #7 and 8 with 5.2 and 5.2 million viewers. Their broadcast relative, Friday Night Smackdown came in at #11 with 3.9 million viewers.
Major League Baseball put one game in the top 20 at #13 with 2.6 million viewers.
Note: Our Sports Ratings combine the top Broadcast sports shows and any cable sports shows that appeared in the top 40 cable programs. It is possible that a cable sports show that had enough viewers to make this list is left off because it didn’t have enough viewers to make the list of the top 40 cable programs for the week (which is all we have access to).
Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2008 Nielsen Media Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
