Cavaliers’ Win Scores NBA Playoffs Ratings Victory, ‘Beat Shazam’ Solid
The first night after the end of the fall television season saw a lot of laughter and giving, a couple of debuts and a return to the NBA Finals for third year in a row for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Putting away 35-points in the Cavs 135-102 win over the Boston Celtics to win the NBA Playoffs Eastern Conference finals, LeBron James has now surpassed Michael Jordan as the league’s all-time playoff scoring leader. In a series full of blowouts, the Cavs triumph in Game 5 of the ECF was also another win for TNT. Scoring a 4.4 metered market result for the cabler, the Cavs win also saw TNT top Thursday in both cable and broadcast. While down 17% from Tuesday’s much closer Game 4 112-99 win for the Cavs, last night’s court battle was up 6% from Game 5 of the 2016 Eastern Conference Finals, when LeBron and crew faced the Toronto Raptors.
Overall, this year’s Eastern Conference Finals were up 5% over the 2016 series. Just like they did in 2015 and 2016, the Cavs will face the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, set to start on ABC on June 1.On the Big 4, ABC and the CW were all encores while CBS’ only original was The Amazing Race (0.6/3), which was a season low for the reality series.
Low was not in the reality cards for Fox last night with the debuts of the Jamie Foxx fronted Beat Shazam (1.2/5) and the Andy Cohen hosted Love Connection (1.1/4). No doubt sending LeBron flowers for that big win last night, Fox saw the Foxx show top the night in the 18-49s and had its first Thursday demo win since American Idol ended on April 7 last year.
Snagging an overall 1.1/4 rating among adults 18-49 last night, the net was also in rightful bragging rights mode with music challenge themed Beat Shazam delivering the best Thursday unscripted debut since Hollywood Game Night launched on NBC on July 11, 2013. Or, to cut closer to home, Beat Shazam was up 71% from the March 9 debut of the now cancelled Kicking and Screaming on the net, also a Thursday.
Over on NBC it was all Red Nose Day all night with a celeb version of American Ninja Warrior (1.1/4), Julia Roberts on Running Wild With Bear Grylls (0.9/4) and then the actual Chris Hardwick hosted special itself. Aiming to raise big bucks to end child poverty and featuring that Love Actually reunion short, the 10 PM celeb heavy Red Nose Day (0.7/3) special was up 17% in the demo from 2016.
Have a great Memorial Day long weekend.
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