• by Wayne Friedman , June 7, 2013

The first game of the NBA Finals owned the first Thursday in June -- but it was down versus last post-season's championship start.

Nielsen preliminary results checked with a 4.9 rating/14 share among 18-49 viewers for the start of the Miami Heat-San Antonio Spurs matchup. Overall, the game pulled in 12.3 million viewers. The final results will rise some.

A year ago, the first game of the NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and Oklahoma City Thunder earned a 6.9 rating/19 share among 18-49 viewers and 16.2 million total average viewers.

In looking at overall TV households, ABC says the game registered a 10.6 rating -- the third-highest in nine years. In the Miami market, Nielsen said the contest posted a 34 household rating; San Antonio came in with a 35.3 rating.

ABC's pre-game show  "NBA Countdown" at 8:30 p.m. earned a 2.5/8 among 18-49 viewers, the second-biggest-rated show of the night. Next came a CBS repeat of "Big Bang Theory," which saw a 2.2/8. After this, Fox's "Hell's Kitchen" and ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live: Game Night" tied at 2.1/7.

A repeat of CBS' "Two and a Half Men" earned a 1.7/6, while a new Fox episode of "Does Someone Have to Go?" came in at a 1.2/3.

While virtually all the networks were in repeats, NBC also aired some original content -- but nothing could rise above the 1 rating mark among key 18-49 viewers. "Save Me" took in a 0.7/3 at 8 p.m. and 0.7/2 at 8:30 p.m. Later than night, at 10 p.m., "Hannibal" earned a 0.9/3.

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