NBC Scores With NBA Finals, but Numbers Are Low

The NBA basketball playoffs remain the biggest scorer network television has to offer during the arid opening of summer, despite a steep ratings decline versus a year ago, based on results issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

NBC expected some drop without Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in the tip-off circle, but thus far the matchup between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs has fallen nearly 40% compared to tune-in for the first two games last year, considerably below what the network anticipated.

With basketball misfiring, NBC barely held off CBS to win the week, as the latter’s series regulars like “60 Minutes” and “Everybody Loves Raymond” continue to repeat disproportionately well. In addition, CBS received a boost from its American Film Institute special highlighting the top 50 movie stars.

Another special, the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards, benefited by shifting from UPN to Fox, more than doubling its audience of a year ago. Fox didn’t fare so well, however, with an original summer episode of the comedy “That ‘70s Show,” which returned to a tepid response last Monday.

Network Averages

Here is the number of viewers that each network averaged per hour of prime time, for last week and for the season.

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Last week Season to date NBC 9.63 million 12.38 CBS 9.35 12.69 ABC 7.69 11.41 FOX 6.37 10.22 WB 2.93 4.36 UPN 2.06 2.69

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Southland Viewing

Here are Nielsen’s Top 5 prime-time programs in the Los Angeles area during the same week. The rankings are based on the number of households watching.

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Program Station House-holds 1. 60 Minutes KCBS 657,293 2. Ally McBeal KTTV 580,266 3. Friends KNBC 559,726 4. Frasier KNBC 544,321 5. Will & Grace KNBC 539,186 “AFI’s 100/100 Stars” KCBS 539,186 20/20 (Mon.) KABC 539,186

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