Basketball, firstrun shows top ratings

NBA Playoffs, 'Lost' nab summer audiences

By RICK KISSELL

Thursday's two-hour finale of 'Lost' boosted the Alphabet net's ratings, pulling in more than 12 million viewers for the night.

Game 4 of the Lakers-Spurs Western Conference finals scored well for TNT, drawing the best numbers for any NBA playoff game this spring.

There was a time when repeats ruled the summer rankings, but those days appear to be long gone.

Last week -- the first stanza of the summer sesh -- 10 of the top dozen programs in primetime among young adults were firstrun programs, including five NBA Playoff contests on cable.

ABC's season finale of "Lost," delayed due to the writers strike, was the week's top draw, but Fox kept its demo winning streak intact, capturing its 21st consecutive frame in adults 18-49 behind its hot unscripted fare.

According to Nielsen, Fox's 2.4 rating/7 share in the 18-49 demo put it comfortably ahead of ABC, CBS and NBC, each of which logged a 1.8/5. They were followed by Univision (1.4/4) and ESPN (1.2/3), with TNT and USA tied for seventh (1.0/3).

Fox also edged out CBS for the week's lead among adults 25-54 (2.5/7 to 2.4/7) and won easily among persons 12-34 (2.2/8 to a 1.2/4 for runners-up ABC and NBC), while CBS cruised in total viewers (7.3 million to 6.1 million for Fox).

For Fox, "Hell's Kitchen" (4.4/12 in 18-49, 9.50m) was the week's No. 2 program in 18-49, logging the cooking competition's best-ever score for an episode that wasn't a finale or that didn't air behind "American Idol."

The net also was represented in the top five by "So You Think You Can Dance"; two-hour installments of the show on Wednesday and Thursday earned identical demo scores (3.6/11 in 18-49). Another unscripted skein, "Moment of Truth," led its hour on Tuesday (3.0/9, 7.40m).

ABC didn't have a whole lot going on for the week, but was bailed out by Thursday's two-hour finale of "Lost" (4.9/13, 12.30m). Although this was the show's lowest-rated season-ender to date, it's worth noting that it typically grows by about 20% in rating when all same-week DVR playback is included.

A disappointment for the Alphabet was Friday's two-hour-plus "Scripps National Spelling Bee" (1.2/4, 4.91m), which was down considerably from last year's Thursday telecast.

CBS was paced by repeats of laffers "Two and a Half Men" (3.3/9 in 18-49, 10.81m) and "Rules of Engagement" (2.8/7, 8.47m), the only repeats among the week's top 12 programs in 18-49.

Among firstrun fare, the Eye logged Saturday's highest rating with the first of four "Elite XC Saturday Night Fights" (2.2/7 in 18-49, 4.85m), which topped 6.5 million viewers in the closing minutes. And on Sunday, "Million Dollar Password" bowed to winning demos (2.2/7 in 18-49, 3.0/8 in 25-54) and was the week's No. 3 program in total viewers (10.62m).

NBC claimed only one of the week's top 20 programs -- Tuesday's repeat of "Law & Order: SVU" (2.5/7, 7.31m) -- but was competitive enough throughout the week.

Hockey was actually a help for the net in this quiet week, as Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals on Saturday (1.7/6 in 18-49, 4.04m) earned the net a narrow 18-49 win -- the first time hockey has won a night in 18-49 in seven years.

ESPN's strong week included three games of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals between Boston and Detroit, which ranked 10th, 11th and 12th in adults 18-49 during the week.

TNT fared a bit better with the Western Finals between Los Angeles and San Antonio, which capped a strong postseason for the cabler. Tuesday's game, in which the Lakers took a stranglehold 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series, drew the best numbers for any NBA postseason game this spring (3.1/9 in 18-49, 7.25m).

For its entire playoff run this spring, TNT averaged 6.31 million viewers, a 25% jump over last year's 5.05 million.

Although overshadowed a bit in the rankings by the hoops action, USA's premiere of drama "In Plain Sight" posted impressive numbers Sunday (1.8/5 in 18-49, 5.25m), outperforming last summer's bow for the hit "Burn Notice" (Daily Variety, June 2).

A&E moved up to a top-five finish for the week thanks to its two-part movie "The Andromeda Strain," which averaged a 1.9/5 in 18-49 and 4.9 million viewers overall on Monday and Tuesday.

Also, Food Network grabbed its best total-viewer (2.06 million) and adults 25-54 audience (1.21 million) to date for the fourth-season preem of "The Next Food Network Star."

And Showtime was pleased with the tune-in Sunday for the second-season finale of "The Tudors," which averaged 852,000 viewers at 9 o'clock -- an 83% improvement over the 465,000 who tuned in for its rookie season's conclusion.