With coverage of the 2011 NBA Finals Game 5 (Dallas-Miami), ABC towered over Thursday’s primetime, outdrawing its nearest competitor by 5.6 million viewers (CBS) and beating its combined network competition on CBS, NBC, Fox and CW in Adults 18-49.
The Net finished #1 for the 5th consecutive night with its coverage of the 2011 NBA Finals among young adults (AD18-34/AD18-49) and across all key Men demos (M18-34/M18-49/M25-54).
Building week to week in viewers and young adults, ABC tallied its biggest Thursday numbers in nearly 1 year – since 6/17/10 with Game 7 of the 2010 Lakers-Celtics NBA Finals.
Airing around the NBA Finals in various time periods across the country, the Jimmy Kimmel Live Game Night special continued to draw broad exposure for the ABC late-night program in primetime.
On average, JKL Game Night once again more than doubled its late night ’10-11 season averages in both Total Viewers (+124%) and Adults 18-49 (+160%).
Scoring the specials’ highest numbers yet this year, ABC’s JKL Live Game Night 5 surged over its comparable year-ago telecast (6/13/10) by big margins in Total Viewers (+41%) and Adults 18-49 (+63%).
In fact among Adults 18-49, JKL Game Night equaled its best-ever number in its 4 years on the air – debuting in 2008.
Featuring the Miami Heat at the Dallas Mavericks, ABC’s 2011 NBA Finals Game 5 (8:58-11:51pm ET) soared over its primetime competition to finish as Thursday’s dominant #1 TV program in Total Viewers and across each of the key Adult demographics (AD18-34/AD18-49/AD25-54). In the advertiser-coveted Adult 18-49 demo, The Finals on ABC have registered as the #1 TV program of the night for 24 telecasts in a row. Dallas held off Miami’s 4th quarter rally to win 112-103 and go up 3-2 in best-of-seven series.
Similar to Tuesday’s Game 4, the 2011 NBA Finals on ABC produced the series’ biggest Game 5 ratings since 2004 (Pistons-Lakers) in Adults 18-49 and Adults 18-34. Furthermore in Adults 18-49, it was ABC’s 2nd-highest-ever non-series-clinching game in its 9 years of broadcasting The Finals.
Based on 5-game averages, the 2011 NBA Finals continues to outperform last year’s huge Lakers-Celtics match-up among in Adults 18-49 and Adults 18-34, posting 7-year highs for The Finals – since 2004. Versus to the last time the same two teams met in The Finals in 2006, the 2011 Miami-Dallas NBA Finals is up substantially in Total Viewers (+29%) and Adults 18-49 (+29%).
(source: ABC)
