Ratings: Another Suns Win Shines Bright for ABC

ABC cruised to a Thursday TV ratings victory thanks to Game 2 of the 2021 NBA Finals. The hardcourt competition was tighter than the one on the Nielsen sheets.

The home team Phoenix Suns won Game 2 118-108. Phoenix now has a 2-0 series lead over the Milwaukee Bucks. The series heads to Wisconsin for Sunday’s Game 3. Coverage starts at 8 o’clock eastern time on ABC.

Last night, Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 42 points — 20 of those in the third quarter alone — and added 12 rebounds in a strong losing effort. Suns shooting guard Devin Booker led his team with 31 points.

Due to the nature of live sports, the below Nielsen numbers for ABC should be considered subject to significant adjustment.

ABC was first in ratings with a 1.8 rating in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and in total viewers with an average of 6.1 million, according to preliminary numbers. ABC’s primetime started like this:
8 p.m. ET – 8:30: “Jimmy Kimmel Live Game Night”
8:30 – 9: “NBA Countdown”

Game 2 itself ran through the rest of primetime, scoring the day part’s best Nielsen numbers and raising ABC’s averages.

CBS, Fox and NBC tied for second in ratings, each with a 0.3. CBS was second in total viewers with 2.1 million, NBC was third with 1.5 million and Fox was fourth with 1.5 million.

For CBS, between repeats, the “Love Island – Thursday” season premiere at 9 p.m. put up a 0.3 rating and 1.6 million total viewers. “Love Island” technically returned for Summer 2021 on Wednesday.

For Fox, “Beat Shazam” at 8 had a 0.4 rating and 1.9 million total viewers. An encore followed.

For NBC, “Making It” at 8 got a 0.3 rating and 1.9 million total viewers. At 9, “Good Girls” received a 0.3 rating and 1.6 million total viewers.

The CW was fifth in ratings with a 0.1 and in total viewers with 549,000. Following reruns, a “90210” tell-all special at 9 had a 0.1 and 372,000 total viewers.

We do not yet have Nielsen numbers for Spanish-language networks Univision and Telemundo.