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Friday Final Nationals: NBA Christmas Day Marquee Matchup on ABC Up Double-Digits Year-to-Year with Cavaliers-Warriors

CBS was the most-watched network on Christmas night with an average of 4.81 million viewers. ESPN, with its double dose of NBA games at night (Spurs-Rockets, Clippers-Lakers), was tops among adults 18-49 in prime time.

The top ratings highlight of Christmas Day was on ABC in the early evening (before prime time) with the NBA rematch of the 2015 Finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Warriors’ 89-83 victory over the Cavaliers was up 20 percent from the comparable game in 2014 (Cavaliers-Heat, 9.328 million total viewers). The Warriors-Cavaliers telecast was the most-watched NBA Christmas Day telecast since 2010 (Miami-L.A. Lakers, 13.1 million).

The game drew a 21.2 rating in Cleveland and a 16.0 in San Francisco — both records for an NBA regular season game in each respective market.

The average audience for the Oklahoma City Thunder’s victory over the Chicago Bulls on ABC in the mid afternoon was also up from last year, averaging nearly six million viewers, (5.962 million viewers), according to Fast Nationals from Nielsen. This was up from 5.885 million viewers for the Spurs-Thunder telecast on ABC in 2014. The ABC Christmas Day doubleheader average was up 13 percent from 2014, averaging an audience of 8.629 million viewers, compared to 7.648 million viewers last year.

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Friday, December 25, 2015
PROGRAM HH/Share Viewers
(000)		 Adults
18-34		 Adults
18-49		 Adults
25-54
8-11 Network Average 2.5/5 4420 1.0/4 1.2/4
5:01 NBA Christmas Special: Cleveland @ Golden State 11166 3.6 3.9 4.1
8:00 CMA Country Christmas (r) 2.7/6 4801 0.8 1.1/4 1.2/4
10:00 20/20 (r) 2.3/5 3659 0.5 0.8/3 1.1/3
PROGRAM HH/Share Viewers
(000)		 Adults
18-34		 Adults
18-49		 Adults
25-54
8-11 Network Average 2.9/6 4810 0.6/2 1.0/3
8:00 The Andy Griffith Show Christmas Special (s) 2.9/6 5203 0.5 0.8/3 1.2/4
9:00 Blue Bloods (r) 2.5/5 4123 0.3 0.5/2 0.8/2
10:00 Blue Bloods (r) 3.1/7 5092 0.3 0.6/2 0.9/3
PROGRAM HH/Share Viewers
(000)		 Adults
18-34		 Adults
18-49		 Adults
25-54
8-11 Network Average 2.0/4 3270 0.7/3 0.9/3
8:00 Truth Be Told (r) 1.2/3 2001 0.3 0.5/2 0.6/2
8:30 Truth Be Told (r) 1.1/2 1668 0.2 0.4/2 9.6/2
9:00 Movie: Coat of Many Colors (r) 2.4/5 3994 0.6 0.8/3 1.1/3
PROGRAM HH/Share Viewers
(000)		 Adults
18-34		 Adults
18-49		 Adults
25-54
8-10 Network Average 0.9/2 1530 0.4/2 0.5/2
8:00 MasterChef Junior (r) 1.0/2 1747 0.4 0.5/2 0.6/2
9:00 American Country Countdown Awards: Top 10 (r) 0.8/2 1318 0.3 0.3/1 0.4/1
PROGRAM HH/Share Viewers
(000)		 Adults
18-34		 Adults
18-49		 Adults
25-54
8-10 Network Average 0.5/1 820 0.3/1 0.3/1
8:00 iHeartRadio Jingle Ball (r) 0.5/1 806 0.2 0.3/1 0.3/1
9:30 Whose Line Is It Anyway? (r) 0.5/1 870 0.2 0.3/1 0.4/1
PROGRAM HH/Share Viewers
(000)		 Adults
18-34		 Adults
18-49		 Adults
25-54
8-11 Network Average 0.9/2 1586 0.6/2
7:00 Muchacha Italiana Viene a Casarse 0.7/2 1242 0.4/2
8:00 Antes Muerta Que Lichita 0.8/2 1474 0.5/2
9:00 Pasion y Poder 0.9/2 1611 0.6/2
10:03 Yo No Creo En Hombres 0.9/2 1676 0.6/2

Cable Rankings – Friday 12/25/15
What follows are the top 20 most-watched shows in prime time on cable for Friday, December 25:


  1. “NBA Basketball: San Antonio @ Houston” (ESPN, 8:00-10:35 p.m.): 3.881 million, 1.757 million adults 18-49 (1.39 rating)

  2. “NBA Basketball: L.A. Clippers @ L.A. Lakers” (ESPN, 10:35 p.m.-12:53 a.m.): 2.887 million, 1.444 million adults 18-49 (1.14 rating)

  3. “NCIS” (USA, 8:41 p.m.): 2.707

  4. “NCIS” (USA, 10:05 p.m.): 2.660

  5. “NCIS” (USA, 9:23 p.m.): 2.561

  6. “NCIS” (USA, 8 p.m.): 2.557

  7. “NCIS” (USA, 10:48 p.m.): 2.363

  8. Movie: “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (2001) (ABC Family, 7:15 p.m.): 2.125

  9. Movie: “Rio Bravo” (1959) (AMC, 7 p.m.): 2.037

  10. “Gold Rush: The Dirt” (Discovery, 9 p.m.): 1.995

  11. Movie: “Four Christmases” (2008) (TBS, 8 p.m.): 1.916

  12. Movie: “Crown for Christmas” (Hallmark, 7:30 p.m.): 1.882

  13. Movie: “A Christmas Melody” (Hallmark, 9 p.m.): 1.814

  14. “Family Guy” (Adult Swim, 10:30 p.m.): 1.772

  15. Movie: “The Blind Side” (2009) (TNT, 7 p.m.): 1.759

  16. “Gold Rush” (Discovery, 8 p.m.): 1.518

  17. Movie: “Cahill United States Marshall” (1973) (AMC, 10 p.m.): 1.502

  18. “Alaskan Bush People: Christmas” (Discovery, 10 p.m.): 1.497

  19. “Family Guy” (Adult Swim, 10 p.m.): 1.487

  20. Movie: “Once Upon a Holiday” (Hallmark, 10:30 p.m.): 1.347


Source: Live+Same Day data, Nielsen Media Research




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