NBA Finals lead in ratings, but it was too short for ABC

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30 shoots around Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) in Game 4 of basketball’s NBA Finals on Friday, June 8, 2018, in Cleveland. The Warriors defeated the Cavaliers 108-85 to sweep the series. (Gregory Shamus/Pool Photo via AP)

NEW YORK — The NBA Finals led ABC to victory in the television ratings last week, but it must have been hard for network executives not to wonder what could have been.

The third and fourth games of the Warriors-Cavaliers series were the two most-watched shows on television last week, the Nielsen company said. It was the fourth straight year those two teams have met for the NBA crown.

But a more competitive series would have meant a lot more viewers. A seven-game series would have been a gold mine.

ABC learned something else this past week: the Kardashians and Kanye West trump the Tonys. Their appearance on “Celebrity Family Feud,” heavily promoted by the network, drew 7.57 million viewers. The Tony Awards on CBS, with ratings up slightly over last year, reached 6.3 million.

ABC won the week in prime-time, averaging 6.3 million viewers. NBC had 4.8 million, CBS had 4.7 million, Fox had 2.1 million, ION Television had 1.43 million, Univision had 1.42 million, Telemundo had 1 million and the CW had 860,000 viewers.

Fox News Channel was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 2.38 million viewers. MSNBC had 1.6 million, HGTV had 1.4 million, USA had 1.38 million and TBS had 1.18 million.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 7.7 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 7.1 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 5.6 million.

For the week of June 4-10, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: NBA Finals: Golden State at Cleveland, Game 3, ABC, 17.94 million; NBA Finals: Golden State at Cleveland, Game 4, ABC, 16.24 million; “America’s Got Talent,” NBC, 11.24 million; “60 Minutes,” CBS, 8.01 million; “Celebrity Family Feud” (Sunday) ABC, 7.57 million; NHL Stanley Cup Final: Washington at Vegas, Game 5, NBC, 6.6 million; “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 6.54 million; “Tony Awards,” CBS, 6.313 million; “World of Dance,” NBC, 6.312 million; “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 6.18 million.