• by Ken Liebeskind , June 5, 2002

With a 23 share/8.8 household/23.7 million viewers, the NBA playoffs might not be the Super Bowl, but it was enough to win the week in the Nielsens for NBC. In fact, four playoff games and a Tip Off pre-game show made the top 25 this week, enabling NBC to win the prime average.

Three of the top four shows were NBA playoff games, sandwiched around CSI, ranked second for CBS. CBS also scored with the Miss Universe pageant, ranked seventh with a 12 share/4.2 household/11.3 million viewers. A Becker special, Everybody Loves Raymond and 60 Minutes also made the top 10 for CBS. NBC's Friends and ABC's Prime Time Thursday rounded out the top 10.

The final game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento Kings, the top ranked show for the week, was the highest rating ever for a Western Conference playoff game.

Thanks to basketball, NBC had the highest prime average for the week, with a 13 share/7.3 household, beating CBS (11/6.2), ABC (7/4.2) and Fox (6/3.3).

The NBA playoffs on TNT also won on cable for the most recent week, with a game scoring a 3.7 household rating with 3.9 million households viewing. WWF Entertainment (TNN), Spongebob (NICK) and Prime Movie, Scared Silent (LIFE) followed.

Syndicated winners for the most recent week were Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, Friends, Seinfeld and Everybody Loves Raymond, with Wheel scoring a 8.7 household with 3.9 million households viewing.

Besides the NBA playoffs, the Fox NASCAR Winston Cup and the Indianapolis 500 (ABC) were sports winners for the most recent week.