TV Ratings: ‘Blue Bloods’ Up For Finale, NBA Playoffs Steady With 2016

Friday was a good night for the Cleveland Cavaliers, for the San Antonio Spurs and for CBS’ Blue Bloods (0.9/4) – at least in the immediate sense.

Swirling in retribution and a political resignation and despite the competition of the NBA Playoffs double header on ESPN, the Tom Selleck-led NYPD family drama closed out its seventh season up 12% among adults 18-49 over last week. The most watched show of the night, and rising 4% from its April 28 airing to 9.05 million viewers, the end of Blue Bloods latest run was however down 18% in the key demo from its Season 6 finale of May 6 last year.

Compared to last year, Lebron James and the Cavs’ 115-94 win over the struggling Toronto Raptors in Game 3 of their series was pretty much on par. Scoring a 2.8 in meter market results for ESPN, the third win in a row for the reigning champs was up 4% over its 2016 equivalent. The Spurs pulled off 103-92 victory over the Houston Rockets and 3.5 MM rating for the later game of Friday night. That’s down 8% from the comparable game of last year – not that ESPN won’t likely win both cable and broadcast overall when all the numbers are in.

Back on broadcast, it was a very rare three-way tie among CBS, ABC and NBC for the top demo spot with all three nets bringing in a 0.8/3 rating. The House of Moonves did not give up its viewership top spot thanks to the 7.32 million who tuned in last night. Looking at the 18-49 again, Undercover Boss (0.7/4) was down a tenth from last week for CBS while Hawaii Five-O (0.9/4) was even as the waves off the Big Island are often not.

The CW’s The Originals (0.3/1) and Reign (0.2/1) were the same as their April 27 shows. Also even last night was the 9 – 11 PM Dateline NBC (0.8/4) with its Princess Diana focused show. Not focused on the deceased British royal of nearly a decade, fellow news mag, 20/20 (0.9/4) was up 13% from its last original of two weeks ago. Actually, last night at 10 PM, 20/20 matched its best 18-49 result since late February.

That might have a bit to do with the fact that the highest rated show of last night was ABC’s Shark Tank (1.0/5). The 9 PM entrepreneurial reality show was the same as its last new show of April 17 in the demo. Earlier in the Disney-owned net’s night, The Toy Box (0.6/3) was also a match for its last show of last week. In the same time slot, NBC’s First Dates (0.7/4) was also even with last week’s offering.

BTW – in case you were wondering where FOX was in all the action last night, the net was all encores.