Ratings: Solid ‘Beat Shazam’ Hands Fox 2nd Place Against NBA Finals

ABC dominates with “Jimmy Kimmel Live” special and Warriors Game 1 win

Beat Shazam
Fox

ABC rejected all competition Thursday with Game 1 of the NBA Finals, which itself was down 5 percent versus last year’s tip-off contest between the same two teams.

With a fairly steady “Beat Shazam” against “Jimmy Kimmel Live Game Night” and “NBA Countdown,” Fox finished second in the key 18-49 demographic. The network was fourth, however, among total viewers.

Due to the nature of live sports, these fast national Nielsen numbers should be considered unreliable for ABC. Final numbers for the start of the Finals will be available later today.

For now, ABC was first in ratings with a 4.8 rating/19 share in the advertiser-coveted demographic and in total viewers with an average of 13.3 million, according to preliminary numbers. The Kimmel special at 8 p.m. scored a 2.5/12 and 8.8 million viewers. The pregame show at 8:30 landed a 2.7/12 and 8.4 million viewers. The Golden State Warriors home win against the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers ran for the rest of the night, pulling ABC’s primetime averages up.

Fox was second in ratings with a 1.0/4, but fourth and in viewers with 3.1 million. “Beat Shazam” at 8 posted a 1.1/5 and 3.4 million viewers. At 9, “Love Connection” received a 0.8/3 and 2.9 million viewers.

CBS was third in ratings with a 0.8/3 and second in viewers with 4.4 million. Following reruns, the “Amazing Race” season finale at 10 had a 0.7/3 and 3.9 million viewers.

NBC was fourth in ratings with a 0.6/2 and third in viewers with 3.6 million, running entirely repeats.

Univision was fifth in ratings with a 0.5/2 and in viewers with 1.5 million.

Telemundo was sixth in ratings with a 0.4/1 and in viewers with 980,000.

The CW was seventh in ratings with a 0.2/1 and in viewers with 769,000, airing a pair of reruns.

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