Last night’s sixth and final game of the 2019 NBA finals ended in a historic victory for the Toronto Raptors.
The Canadian team became the first from outside the United States to claim the title, beating the defending champion Golden State Warriors 114-110 in a tense game.
In terms of the ratings, Game 6 on ABC was down slightly on Game 5 in the overnight household rating in metered markets. Last night’s game came in at a 13.2, as opposed to the 13.4 managed by the previous encounter. The Live+Same Day ratings for the game will be available later this morning.
Overall, the 2019 finals were on on the lower end of the ratings in comparison with the Warriors-Cavaliers duals of the past four seasons. The below average numbers were likely due to in part to the fact LeBron James did not take part, and in part to the fact one of the two teams was from north of the border. Unsurprisingly, these finals games have been smashing records for NBA viewership in Canada, with Game 2 delivering a combined average audience of 4.3 million viewers (across its simulcast coverage on TSN, CTV2 and RDS), making it the country’s most-watched NBA game ever. It remains to be seen if last night’s crowning glory for Raptors will overcome that number, given that the figures in Canada are released later in the day.
Elsewhere on Thursday, the series finales of “Abby’s” and “A.P. Bio” were swept aside by the NBA juggernaut. The former only managed a 0.3 rating in the key 18-49 demographic and 1.25 million viewers, while the latter didn’t fare much better with a 0.3 rating and 1.4 million total viewers. That “A.P. Bio” rating is the lowest the show achieved throughout its two-season run.