On a night that saw the penultimate episodes of Season 3 of Empire (2.1/3) and Season 5 of Arrow (0.5/2), plus finales for Designated Survivor (1.1/4) the now-canned Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders (0.7/3) and Blindspot (0.8/3), the Boston Celtics may have felt their NBA playoff hopes heading towards a conclusion too.
Confidently beaten 117-104 by reigning champ Cleveland in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Celtics can take solace in the fact that TNT scored a strong 4.7 rating in metered markets from the matchup. Last night’s rating was up 15% from the opening game of the 2016 Eastern Conference Finals on ESPN last May 17, when LeBron James and crew beat the Toronto Raptors 115-84. Compared to the TNT-aired Game 1 battle between the Golden State Warriors and Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference finals on May 16 last year, last night’s game was down 29% in MM ratings – but that is a bit apples to oranges. The Cavs and the Celtics take the court for Game 2 tomorrow night in Boston.
Heading into next week’s finale with some brotherly blood on its hands, Empire is currently flat with last week’s fast affiliate rating, which went up a tenth in the final numbers. Lead-in Shots Fired (0.8/3) was even with its May 19 show to give Fox the demo win for the night with a 1.5/6 rating. Finishing fourth with a 1.0/4 result among adults 18-49, CBS was tops in viewers Thursday with 5.71 million.
Survivor (1.7/7) also matched its May 19 result, while a double shot of Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders at 9 PM (0.7/3) and 10 PM (0.7/3) were each down a tenth from last week. Finale-to-finale, Beyond Borders was down 30% from its Season 1 ender of May 25, 2016 – also a double-header night.
Heading into today’s Upfronts presentation, there were no finales on the CW last night as Arrow and The 100 (0.3/1) stayed the same as last week. It was two-fer of finales on NBC, with 8 PM’s Blindspot staying the same as last week but falling 38% from its 10 PM Season 1 ender of May 23, 2016, a Monday. At 10 PM, the renewed Chicago P.D. (1.3/5) was up a tenth from its fast affiliates of May 19 and down a tenth from the final numbers of its Season 3 finale of May 23 last year. Caught in the middle of the season enders last night, Law & Order: SVU (1.2/5) rose 9% among 18-49s from last week.
ABC was in the unique position Thursday of ending a bunch of seasons and starting a new one with Downward Dog (1.1/4). Pulling in an OK result on an soft-ish night, the summer comedy that previewed at the Sundance Film Festival in January was down 15% from the Black-ish season finale of last week.
The rest of the Disney-owned net’s night saw the first season-finale of the Kiefer Sutherland drama Designated Survivor up as tenth from its May 19 show, as was The Goldbergs (1.4/6), the Season 1 ender of Speechless (1.2/5) and Season 8 finale of Modern Family (1.7/6). Having had a hard ratings run this season, the Emmy-winning comedy was down 19% in the demo from its Season 7 ender of May 18 last year. The 8 PM Season 4 finale of the Adam F. Goldberg-created Goldbergs slid a hard 26% from its 8:30 PM ender of May 18, 2016.
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