NBA Finals Opener Rules Wednesday TV Ratings; ‘The Masked Singer’ Sees Record Rise

Dino-Ray Ramos
·2 min read

It was nothing but net for the NBA Finals on ABC on Wednesday, as Game 1 of the Los Angeles Lakers-Miami Heat championship series left everyone in the dust. The game delivered a 2.2 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic to go along with 5.31 million viewers who watched the Lakers’ 116-98 victory in the bubble in Orlando.

The game was preceded on ABC by a special Jimmy Kimmel Live: Game Night (1.1, 4.16M) and NBA Countdown (1.0, 3.30M), with the NBA block sweeping primetime in the demo and viewers for the network. As always with live sporting events, Nielsen’s Live+Same Day numbers are likely to be adjusted in the finals later today.

Fox’s music-filled night kicked off with The Masked Singer (1.7, 6.48M), which was Wednesday’s most-watched program on broadcast TV. It grew three tenths from last week’s debut, marking the first time in the reality competition’s history that it gained from its premiere in its second week in the demo and viewers. Meanwhile, I Can See Your Voice (1.1, 4.38M) held steady with last week’s premiere.

On CBS, Big Brother (1.0, 4.21M) ticked down, while Love Island (0.5, 2.02M) was lukewarm in its season finale, taking a dip from last week’s numbers. 48 Hours: Suspicions (0.3, 2.01M) also slipped in the demo.

After seven seasons, The CW’s The 100 said goodbye. Its series finale scored a 0.2 in the demo and 629,000 viewers, a season high for the sci-fi drama and its biggest audience in eight episodes.

NBC aired repeats of Ellen’s Game of Games and and encore of its premiere episode of Weakest Link, which on Tuesday nabbed the network’s top premiere rating in more than a year (since America’s Got Talent: Champions in January 2019).

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