• by Wayne Friedman , June 4, 2010

The big NBA Finals Boston Celtics-Los Angeles Lakers rivalry hasn't disappointed.

In Nielsen preliminary results, viewership is up 7% for game one to 11.2 million viewers. Last year's game one of the final, featuring the Orlando Magic-Los Angeles Lakers, averaged 10.5 million viewers.

Against the key 18-49 viewers, the game was only up 2%, averaging a 4.6 rating/14 compared to a year ago, which landed at a 4.4 rating/13 share.

The latest Celtics-Lakers Final improved on its results the last time around in 2008 -- at least compared to preliminary results. That first game got to a 4.0 rating/11 share for 18-49 viewers and 10 million average viewers.

Still, as with most TV programming, the NBA Finals has seen its share of ratings erosion. Over the last 20 years, overall ratings for the event has dropped to around 12 million in recent years on average, from around 19 million viewers at a high point.

While the NBA fared well this year, one of the summer's big reality shows -- Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance" -- didn't go down quietly. It earned a 3.2/11, up a bit from week ago. It was the second-best-rated show of the night, tying ABC's "NBA Countdown," which ran at 8:30 p.m.

ABC also grabbed good numbers earlier in the evening at 8 p.m. with "Jimmy Kimmel Game Night," which took in a 2.5/9. Many other shows were repeats, other than NBC, which went with games -- "100 Questions" landed at a 0.9 rating/3 share.

ABC was tops in 18-49 for the evening -- a 3.9/12. Fox was at a 3.2/10; CBS, a 1.5/5; Univision, a 1.4/4; and CW, a 0.5/2.