Fast National ratings for Thursday, June 20, 2013.
Live sporting events make preliminary ratings difficult to exactly gauge, but it’s clear that ABC dominated the Thursday night ratings thanks to an NBA championship game between the Heat and Spurs that should be the second highest-rated NBA Finals game in ABC history. (The highest: Game 7 of Celtics-Lakers back in 2010.)
Based on preliminary numbers, ABC averaged a 7.1 rating among adults 18-49 and 17.82 million viewers overall. Everyone else was irrelevant, whether it was FOX (1.4, 3.71 million) coming in second in demos, CBS (1.0, 5.89 million) second in total viewers, or NBC (0.6, 1.77 million) and the CW (0.3, 981,000) lagging well behind.
8 p.m. — Even with pregame festivities (Jimmy Kimmel’s show and “NBA Countdown”), ABC handily won the hour, with a 3.9 rating and 10.33 million viewers. FOX was second in demos with “Hell’s Kitchen” (1.9, 5.06 million), followed by “Big Bang Theory” and “Two and a Half Men” repeats on CBS (1.4, 6.63 million), a “Parks and Recreation” repeat double-feature on NBC (0.6, 2.0 million) and a “Vampire Diaries” repeat on the CW (0.4, 1.05 million).
9 p.m. — The Miami-San Antonio game began, and ABC’s dominance grew, with a 7.8 demo rating and 19.63 million viewers. FOX’s “Does Someone Have to Go?” was second (0.9, 2.37 million), though a “Person of Interest” repeat on CBS (0.7, 5.82 million) had more viewers. They were followed by an “Office” repeat on NBC (0.5, 1.39 million) and a “Beauty and the Beast” rerun on the CW (0.2, 681,000).
10 p.m. — More destruction in LeBron’s wake, as the game rose to a 9.5 rating and 23.48 million viewers. An “Elementary” repeat on CBS (0.8, 5.22 million) was second, followed by the “Hannibal” season finale (0.7, 1.92 million).