• by Wayne Friedman , June 14, 2013

ABC’s game four of the “NBA Finals” between the Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs posted nearly identical ratings to the fourth game of the series a year ago.

“NBA Finals” posted a Nielsen preliminary 5.8 rating/18 share among 18-49 viewers and 14.1 million overall viewers. This was down from a 6.0 rating a year ago. Finals ratings are expected to rise.

Other NBA-related programming on ABC was also slightly lower than comparable programming of a year ago. At 8 p.m., “Jimmy Kimmel Live Game Night” was 2.4/9 among adults 18-49 and 7.2 million overall viewers, down from a 2.5 rating a year ago. 

At 8:30 p.m., ABC’s “NBA Countdown” was at a 2.7/9 -- also down one tick from a 2.8 rating a year ago. The pre-game show had some 7.3 million viewers.

Four series had original episodes from other networks. The best was Fox’s “Hell’s Kitchen” at 8 p.m., which scored a 2.0/7 (tying a repeat of “Big Bang Theory on CBS) and 5.1 million viewers. At 9 p.m., Fox’s “Does Someone Have To Go” got to a 0.9/3 and 2.4 million viewers.

NBC programming was next: “Hannibal” at 10 p.m. saw a 0.7/2 and 2.0 million viewers. Earlier in the evening, “Save Me” at  8:30 p.m. earned a 0.5/3 and 2.2 million viewers.

For the night among key 18-49 viewers, ABC was at a 4.7/15, well ahead of everyone else. Fox was at a 1.4/5; Univision, a 1.4/4; CBS, 1.2/4; NBC, 0.6/2; and CW, a 0.3/1 .