Viewers tune in to NBA playoff games, CBS’ ‘FBI’ and ‘Young Sheldon’

NBA conference finals accounted for four of the top seven prime-time programs between May 16 and Sunday, with TNT’s coverage of Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals finishing first for the week.

The Golden State Warriors’ 109-100 victory over the Dallas Mavericks Sunday averaged 7.416 million viewers, according to live-plus-same-day figures released Tuesday by Nielsen.

The only other programs with more than 7 million viewers were the CBS crime drama “FBI,” which averaged 7.145 million viewers, and the Season 5 finale of the CBS comedy “Young Sheldon,” which averaged 7.058 million.

CBS had four of the top 10 prime-time programs to finish first for the 13th time in the 13 weeks following the Winter Olympics, and the 19th time in the 35-week-old 2021-22 television season. It averaged 4.39 million viewers.

ABC was second, averaging 3.74 million viewers. Its ratings leader was the Miami Heat’s 109-103 victory over the Boston Celtics in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals Saturday, which averaged 6.805 million viewers, fourth for the week.

NBC finished third, averaging 2.95 million. “Chicago Fire” was at the top of its rankings, fifth for the week and third among nonsports programs, averaging 6.791 million viewers.

Fox averaged 2.03 million viewers, topped by the procedural drama “9-1-1,” 16th for the week and 10th among nonsports programs, averaging 5.545 million viewers. “9-1-1” has been Fox’s ratings leader all eight times an original episode has aired since March 21.

The CW averaged 370,000 viewers. Its biggest draw was the 8 p.m. Saturday rerun of the comedy improv series, “Whose Line Is It Anyway?,” which averaged 569,000 viewers, 179th among broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.

The top 20 consisted of nine programs that aired on CBS — seven scripted series episodes, the newsmagazine “60 Minutes” and the alternative series “Survivor”; six NBA conference finals games, three on TNT, two on ESPN and one on ABC; the three elements of NBC’s “Chicago” franchise, “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago Med” and “Chicago P.D.”; the season finale of “American Idol” on ABC; and Fox’s “9-1-1.”

Three NBA Western Conference Final games lifted TNT to the top of the cable network race for the fourth time in five weeks, averaging 2.78 million viewers. Two NBA Eastern Conference Finals games gave ESPN second place, averaging 2.267 million viewers.

After finishing second twice in a row, Fox News Channel was third, averaging 2.255 million, and was the only other cable network to average more than 1 million viewers for its prime-time programming.

The top 20 cable programs consisted of 11 Fox News Channel political talk shows — five broadcasts of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” four of “Hannity” and two of “The Ingraham Angle”; five NBA conference finals games, three on TNT and two on ESPN; two nine-minute “NBA Courtside” pregame shows on ESPN; the Season 9 finale of the Hallmark Channel period drama “When Calls the Heart”; and Fox Sports 1’s coverage of the NASCAR All-Star Race.

“The Lincoln Lawyer” was Netflix’s most-streamed program, with viewers spending 108.09 million hours watching the 10-episode legal drama in its first full week of release, according to figures provided by the streaming service. Viewership was up 139.7% from the 45.09 million hours watched the previous week, when it was available for three days.

“Senior Year” was Netflix’s top-ranked movie for the second consecutive week, with viewers spending 62.42 million hours watching the comedy in its first full week of release, 11.6% more than the 55.94 million hours watched the previous week when it was available for three days.