Friday Ratings: NBA Finals Top The Night, But There’s An Asterisk Attached To Its Win

deadline.com:

The National Basketball Assn. topped Friday’s ratings by a healthy margin, the game coming in with a 2.3 and 7.95 million viewers in the early results.

Those numbers may go up when finalized.In the Friday game, the Golden State Warriors beat the Boston Celtics to tie the best-of-seven series at 2-2.

It’s now down to the best 2 out of 3 in what’s sure to be a drama-filled slate of games.Also doing well for ABC on Friday was the pre-game Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which came in with an early 1.1 and 5.54 million viewers, and the throat-clearing NBA Countdown, which had a 1.0 and 4.44 million count.While that’s certainly cheerful news, the numbers are a bit of a shell game.

Overall, the NBA Finals viewership is down from the pre-pandemic era, but up from last year. News outlets that cover sports ratings are equally confused, as some buy the NBA spin that ratings are up, while others claim they are “Disappointing” (Front Office Sports), “Unimpressive” (The Athletic) and “Underwhelm” (Sports Media Watch).