For TV, It’s Officially Summer

The baton pass from the official television season to the summer took place last week, as several high-rated programs capped off the latest rating sweeps--which concluded May 22--before viewers began scattering for the long Memorial Day weekend, based on viewing estimates issued Wednesday by Nielsen Media Research.

NBC’s schedule will get an injection from the NBA playoffs the next few weeks, and thus far the network’s coverage is up more than 10% compared with last year, with Game 3 of the Lakers-Kings series garnering respectable numbers Friday that were good enough to win the night.

This is also a time of year when cable channels capitalize on network reruns, and HBO delivered strong tune-in by the pay channel’s standards Sunday with the documentary “In Memoriam: New York, 9/11/01,” which was last week’s most-watched cable program.

The sweeps, meanwhile, ended with a bang, as “The West Wing” season finale won its hour against Fox’s “Celebrity Boxing,” which dropped sharply compared with its March debut versus a “Wing” rerun. Fox also got no appreciable bump for the payoff of its serialized drama “24,” which faced the ninth-season finales of the still-durable “Frasier” and “NYPD Blue.”

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National Nielsen Viewership

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