The Celtics-Mavericks series heads into Game 5 tonight with viewership down 2% from the same point of the Nuggets-Heat NBA Finals last year, which only went five games. ABC was flat with 2023 after three games, but the Mavericks’ 122-84 win in Game 4 on Friday night put a dent in those numbers.
ABC drew just 9.62 million viewers for Game 4. Excluding the pandemic NBA Finals in 2020, which aired in October, that would be the least-watched NBA Finals Game 4 on record. The prior low for a Game 4 in its normal window looks to be 9.67 million for Spurs-Nets Game 4 in 2003, which aired on a Wednesday night. Back in 2020, Game 4 of Lakers-Heat drew 7.54 million on a Tuesday night (a game that also had some sports competition from the MLB LDS, the NHL Draft and the WNBA Finals).
Celts-Mavs Game 4 did deliver ABC a prime-time win on Friday. The best audience that night outside of the NBA was “Dateline” on NBC at 10pm ET with 2.67 million. ESPN aired a College World Series pool play game, Florida State-Tennessee, drawing 1.37 million. ESPN back in Game 3 on Wednesday night had a Kevin Hart-led simulcast of Celts-Mavs, but that drew just 453,000 viewers.
Should the series end tonight, ABC would need to draw over 13.9 million viewers in order for Celtics-Mavericks to top Nuggets-Heat last year. That Nuggets-Heat Game 5 clincher in 2023 drew 13.1 million, and Warriors-Celtics Game 5 in 2022 drew 13 million. The last Game 5 of the NBA Finals to top 13.9 million was Raptors-Warriors in 2019 (also on a Monday) with 18.2 million.
While linear TV numbers are down, social media is growing for ABC/ESPN. The four "Hoop Streams" shows at the NBA Finals -- hosted by Cassidy Hubbarth and Gary Striewski -- have accumulated 1.3 million views and 2.1 million minutes across ESPN YouTube, ESPN Facebook and the ESPN app. Each of those numbers is up more than 80% compared to the first four shows during last year’s NBA Finals.
