NBA Playoffs Ratings Strong & Steady, ‘Imaginary Mary’ & ‘Great News’ Up

Cable news was all lit up with the sudden firing of FBI Director James Comey by President Donald Trump last night, while on cable itself the San Antonio Spurs moved one game closer to winning their NBA playoff series against the Houston Rockets. With all that action, it was a pretty steady primetime on the Big 4 and the CW on Tuesday — with two double-digit exceptions.

No numbers for CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC yet, but on TNT, the Spurs’ 110-107 win over the Rockets scored a 3.5 result in metered market ratings. Peaking with a 5.5 rating in the 10:45-11 PM ET slot, last night’s game was basically even with the 3.6 MM result the Wizards-Celtics and Warriors-Jazz doubleheader drew May 2. Last night’s game looks set to win the night for TNT on cable easily, and it will likely competitive with broadcast when final numbers come in.

On the CW, iZombie (0.4/1) rose a tenth from its May 2 show while lead-in The Flash (1.0/4) was flat with last week. In fact, almost everything in the 8 PM slot was the same as last week for The Voice (1.6/7), The Middle (1.2/5) and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (0.6/2). In the 9 PM slot, Fox’s Prison Break (0.9/3) matched its fast affiliate of May 2, which was adjusted down at tenth later on. The most watched show of the night with 13.04 million viewers was NCIS (1.4/6), tied with its May 2 fast affiliate. That number went up a tenth in the finals as is often the case for the procedural.

Overall, CBS and NBC — which saw The Voice as the night’s highest-rated show among adults 18-49 — were again tied for the top demo spot with the same 1.2/5 they had last week. With Bull (1.2/5) and NCIS: New Orleans (1.0/4) also the same as last week in the demo but drawing good viewership numbers, the House of Moonves was the night’s most-watched net with 10.94 million total viewers, up 1.2% over May 2.

NBC got a bit of good news on the steady night as the 9:30 PM airing of newbie Great News (0.7/3) was up 17% in the demo compared with last week. The 9 PM Great News (0.8/3) lead-in was even with its May 2 show, as was 10 PM’s Chicago Fire (1.2/5).

ABC got a welcome dose of ratings reality with Imaginary Mary (0.9/3) jumping 29% in the 18-49s over last week for its best Tuesday demo result. Otherwise, American Housewife (1.2/5), Fresh Off The Boat (1.0/4) and Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. (0.7/3) matched their May 2 results.