NBA Finals final game rocks DFW ratings

by Ed Bark of UncleBarky.com

San Antonio's close-out of Cleveland, co-starring a very happy Michael Finley, also played like a champ in Thursday's D-FW ratings.

In fact, the NBA would kill for these kinds of numbers nationally. The game and its attendant trophy presentation averaged 254,660 homes, peaking at 395,080 from 10:30 to 10:45 p.m. It also dominated the advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-old ratings, predictably breaking sharply along gender lines. Here's a look at the disparity:

18-to-49-Year-Old Men -- 113,563

18-to-49-Year-Old Women -- 59,788

The pre-game 7 to 8 p.m. slot went to Fox's Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?, which chalked up a nice-sized 178,500 homes in more than doubling the crowds for CBS' new Pirate Master reality series and ABC's parlay of Fast Cars & Superstars and a pre-game show.

Absent competition from Belo8 because of the game runover, NBC5's 10 p.m. news racked up wins in both total homes and with 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

Fox4 continued its strong run at 6 a.m., winning in both ratings measurements. CBS11's Scott Sams-led early show continued to run poorly, drawing less than one-fifth the crowd of Fox4, which had 107,100 homes. CBS11's 25-to-54-year-old numbers were equally dismal.

Belo8 won at 6 p.m. in both homes and among 25-to-54-year-olds. NBC5 finished first in homes at 5 p.m., but Belo8 had the edge with 25-to-54-year-olds.

Don't miss Uncle Barky's farewell interview with Bob Barker.